Interview with István Anhalt

by Ned Bouhalassa

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István Anhalt studied at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music and the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, studying composition under Zoltán Kodály and Nadia Boulanger, conducting under Louis Fourestier and piano with Soulima Stravinsky. In 1949, Anhalt came to Canada on a Lady Davis Foundation fellowship, and was appointed to the Faculty of Music at McGill University. After several years of experimentation and compositional work at several electronic music laboratories in Canada and the United States, Anhalt founded the electronic music studio at McGill (1964) and was appointed director. In 1982 the degree Doctor of Music, honoris causa, was bestowed upon him by McGill. Istvan Anhalt's career as a professional musician can be described in a few words. He is neither a facile nor a prolific composer. Each of his 25 works reveal a discriminating creative personaltiy whose artistic ideals are of the highest order, and who takes infinite pains to achieve them. [Canadian Music Centre, 2002]