Anhalt, István,1919-2012 : Born in Budapest, Hungary, István Anhalt began his musical training at the age of six and in 1936 studied with Zoltán Kodály. The following year, he enrolled in the Budapest Academy of Music, where he took various courses, including composition with Zoltán Kodály and piano with György Kósa. A highly gifted student, he received his diploma in 1941 and obtained first class honours in composition, orchestration, piano and history of music. In 1944, after two years of confinement in forced labour camps operated by the Hungarian army, Anhalt managed to escape and was able to survive by using forged papers until the end of the war. He finally left Hungary in 1946 and lived in Paris for three years where he studied conducting with Louis Fourestier, at the Conservatoire national de musique et d'art dramatique, at the same time taking private composition lessons with Nadia Boulanger and piano lessons with Soulima Stravinsky. After receiving a Lady Davis fellowship in 1949, Istvàn Anhalt was able to emigrate to Canada. His work Interludium, composed that year, was dedicated to Lady Davis.
Upon arriving in Canada, Anhalt began his career as a professor and administrator at McGill University in the Faculty of Music, where he developed a composition program and also became chairman of the Department of Theory (1963-1969). His growing interest in electroacoustic music led him to explore new tones, and to establish the McGill Electronic Music Studio, which he headed from 1964 until 1971. He was appointed Slee Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo for the fall session of 1969, and then appointment chairman of the Faculty of Music at Queen's University (1971-1981). Anhalt retired in 1984 and remained in Kingston.
During his career, Anhalt composed many commissioned works, including Cento: Cantata Urbana (University Chamber Singers, 1967), La Tourangelle (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1975), Thisness (Vancouver New Music Society, 1985), Simulacrum (National Arts Centre Orchestra, 1987), SparkskrapsS (Esprit Orchestra, 1988) and Twilight Fire (Kingston Symphony Orchestra, 2002). The opera Winthrop, two and one-half hours in length, is indisputably his most commanding work. Performed in 1986 at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener as part of the International Year of Canadian Music and the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it requires 30 instrumentalists, 6 solo singers, a mixed chorus of 24 voices and a children's choir. The artist also composed several pieces for chamber ensembles or soloists, including the Sonata for Violin and Piano, Doors... Shadows (Glenn Gould in Memory) for string quartet, the Fantasia for piano and the Six Songs from Na Conxy Pan for voice and piano. In 1993, István Anhalt was awarded the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada.
