Place of birth: Budapest
Date of birth: 1970
Educated subject: jazz piano
E-mail: info@kalmanolah.hu
Link: www.kalmanolah.com, www.marecordings.com
Egyéb elérhetőség: http://www.triomidnight.hu
He is an extremely versatile jazz pianist, composer, musician and teacher, a prominent figure of contemporary Hungarian jazz, combining masters of jazz, folk music and contemporary classical music.
He studied piano at his childhood, at age thirteen he became acquainted with jazz, for five years he was a student of Attila Garay. In 1987 she was admitted to the Jazz Department of the Bartók Béla Music Secondary School, where she was a pupil of Béla Szakcsi Lakatos and then János Gonda. During the Conservatory he participated in several international competitions, with Tony Lakatos and László Attila Band. Completed his studies in 1990. In the same year he founded the Trio Midnight with János Egri and Elemér Balázs, and they performed with great success at prestigious domestic and foreign festivals. Also in 1990, she received the special prize at the jury of the international band of leverkusen, and in 1991 she won first prize at the Mieczyslaw Kosz International Jazz Piano Competition in Kalisz in Poland.
In 1994, he founded the Oláh Kálmán skeptics, which was one year later a success in France at the Marciac Jazz Festival. Night Silence, Dezső Ablakos Lakatos, the excellent saxophone contributor. Kálmán Oláh was chosen as the best soloist of the Hoeilaart Jazz Competition in 1995 and won the third prize at the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1999, Moments from my Life was released, with some of his own compositions, including some of the remixed versions of Bach, Bartók and Debussy.
His first major work, the Concerto for Jazz Orchestra, was presented in February 2001 by the Hungarian Radio with the participation of the Budapest Jazz Orchestra. The symphony orchestral transcript of the piece was Concerto for Symphony and Jazz Band, which was presented at the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra in 2004. In 2001, a collaboration with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was released, with the work of J. S. Bach Goldberg variations, accompanied by the improvisations of Kálmán Oláh. Since 2000 he has been teaching piano and composing at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.
In September 2006, with his song Always, he was awarded the prize of one of the most prestigious American jazz compositions competitions, Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composer’s Competition. During his career he has played with renowned artists such as Randy Brecker, Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, Steve Grossman, John Patitucci, Jack DeJohnette, Tommy Campbell, Kenny Wheeler, Ron McClure, Stefano Di Battista, Jay Leonhart, Daniel Humair, André Ceccarelli, Paolo Fresu, Palle Danielsson, Ravi Coltrane and Philip Catherine.
In 1995 he received the eMeRton Award as the jazz soloist of the year and in 2000 as a member of the Trio Midnight. In 2001 he won the Hungarian Jazz Prize, Liszt Prize in 2006 and Gábor Szabó in 2008.