László Sáry

László Sáry (born Győrasszonyfa, Hungary, 1 January 1940) is a Hungarian composer and music educator, founding member of Új Zenei Stúdió, brother of composer József Sári. He studied with Endre Szervánszky at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest (1961–6). His early works show the strong influence of Bartók. In ensuing years, acquaintance with the music of Boulez and Stockhausen stimulated a change in his style. The experimental ideas he developed with Új Zenei Stúdió (Budapest New Music Studio), which he co-founded in 1970 with Zoltán Jeney and László Vidovszky, among others), led to group improvisation and collective compositions, of which Pentagram (1982) is an adaptation. His encounter with Christian Wolff at Darmstadt in 1972 led him to diverge further from traditional Western European styles. Much of his music of the 1970s and 80s employs repetitive patterns, such as chordal sequences (A Continuity of Rotative Chords), groups of scales (Ludus cromaticus) or small sets of pitches (Fives Repeated, made up of 120 permutations of five pitches). His interest in electronics and musique concrète led to Studies for Steam Engines (tape, 1996), which won third prize in the seventh International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (1998).

In the mid-1970s, Sáry began formulating ‘Creative Music Practice’, which explores improvisation in teaching and composing; he has introduced this method to music teachers in Japan, France, Italy, Belgium and Estonia. His book on the subject, Kreatív zenei gyakolatok (‘Creative music activities’), was published in 1999.

In 2002, his original score was awarded Best Music by the Kecskemét Animation Film Festival Jury.

Accolades 1979 – Kassák Award 1985 – Ferenc Erkel Award 1993 – Bartók–Pásztory Award 1998 – 3rd. Prize at the Seventh International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music in Vienna 2000 – Érdemes Művész 2008 – Kiváló Művész 2016 – Artisjus Award for Classical Composition of the year (2016)