Austrian composer Ivan Eröd dies yesterday, aged 83. He was born in Budapest in 1936 and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He emigrated to Austria in 1956 and continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy. From 1962–1968 he was solo répétiteur at the Wiener Staatsoper and the Wiener Festwochen. From 1967 to 1989 he taught music theory and composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, and later taught at the Vienna Music Academy. His students included Rudolf Hinterdorfer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Michele Trenti and Gerhard Präsent. From 2004–2009 he was a teacher at Franz Liszt Academy of Music.
Eröd created operas (Die Seidenraupen, Der Füssener Totentanz, Orpheus ex Machina, Die Liebesprobe) and his children’s work Pünktchen und Anton for the Vienna State Opera was especially successful. In addition, he composed numerous orchestral works, chamber music pieces and songs.
Eröd’s compositional work is characterized by free, more accessible elements in the field of tonality. In his later career, Eröd turned his back on the traditions of Schönberg’s twelve-tone technique. He did not shy away from integrating jazz echoes or Hungarian folk music into his own musical language.
