Biography

Anikó Novák is an accomplished piano artist and professor of piano at the levels of non-degree, BA and MA education and teacher training.

Performance

As a piano artist, Anikó has performed over 150 national and international concerts, with over 30 live and studio concert recordings for the Hungarian Radio. She has given solo and chamber concerts in most European countries (Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Cologne, Milan, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Roma, Cremona, Palermo, Torino, Linz, St. Petersburg, Katowice, Stuttgart), in the USA (Chicago, Des Moines, Washington DC) and in Asia (Japan, Taiwan). Her television and radio performances include recordings in Vienna, Budapest, Tokyo and Zagreb. From 1989-2012, she was the solo pianist and accompanist of Hungary’s most prestigious children’s choir, The Hungarian Radio and Television Children’s Choir. In this capacity, she participated in the Choir’s concerts, national and international tours. Several concert-, radio and television recordings have been made about the choir with her participation. While living in the United States (1999-2003) she played solo and chamber concerts. In 2001 she was the first Hungarian to give a recital in the Young Talents concert series at the Kennedy Center (Washington DC).

She has worked with artists including Philip Glass, Dennis-Russel Davies, Barnabás Dukay, Edit Klukon, Zoltán Kocsis, András Schiff and Tamás Vásáry.
In chamber music, she has accompanied trios, quartets and instruments ranging from violin and cello to tuba, flute and clarinet.

Teaching

Anikó’s ambition is to help her students achieve a state of ’owning’ the instrument in a way that technical hindrances would not prevent them from expressing their musical thoughts.

Teaching experience:

Anikó has built a strong reputation as an instructor in the areas of piano, chamber music and accompaniment. Institutions where she taught include:

  • 2010- present: the International Kodály Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Hungary – at the levels of non-degree, BA and MA education and teacher training
  • 2009, 2011: International Summer Seminars, Kecskemet, Hungary
  • 2004-2010: Teachers’ Training Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest
  • 1999-2003: Sitar Arts Center, Washington DC, USA
  • 1996-1998: University of Miskolc, Bartók Béla Music Institute, Miskolc, Hungary
  • 1990-95: The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (tutor)
  • 1989-2012: Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir Music School
  • 1989-present: private students of all ages and levels

As a result of performing and teaching in the United States (1999-2003), Anikó is skilled teaching children and adults in English.

Teaching at the Kodaly Institute

The past five years of her work in music pedagogy and piano teaching at the Kodály Institute has been extremely significant in her professional life. The continuously inspiring, multinational and multicultural environment of the institute has offered her lots of positive experiences both in her professional life and in human relationships through her pedagogic work with foreign students, as well as a performing artist.

ZeneZen: The Kokas-Piano-Kodály Master Class

In 2016, a new master class will be launched in the Institute, by Aniko and her colleague, Professor Katalin Körtvési.

ZeneZen is a new approach in the teaching of piano performance that aims at increasing the technical and musical skills through the integration of a comprehensive and in-depth training of general musicianship according to the Kodaly concept and through the possibilities of self-expression, communal creativity, and a refined sense of communication based on empathy manifested in the Kokas pedagogy.

Education

Anikó Novák began playing the piano at the age of eight, in Miskolc, Hungary, under the guidance of Mária Zsignár. By the age of ten, she had played the Capriccio Brilliant by F. Mendelssohn and by fourteen, she had played the Fantasie Ungarishe by F. Liszt with the Symphonic Orchestra of Miskolc and was highly successful in a number of youth piano contests (notably, 1st place, National Youth Piano Contest, Nyíregyháza, Hungary, and 3rd place, International Piano Contest, Usty Nad Labem, Czech Republic, in 1980). Soon after these successes, she was admitted to the Special School for Exceptional Young Talents of the Hungarian Music Academy, mentored by György Nádor and Gyöngyi Keveházi.
In 1989 she won the Best Accompanist Prize at the International Cello Competition in Varna.
In 1993 she received the Best Pianist Prize at the Liszt Academy.

She received her diploma from the Hungarian Music Academy in 1994, mentored by Mihály Bächer, Sándor Falvai and Ferenc Rados.

Since then, her career as a music artist has been characterized both by participating in higher education and by performing as a soloist and a chamber musician.

Qualifications

  • Advanced Honors Degree, Musical Arts and Instruction: Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Hungary, 1987-93. Diploma work under the guidance of Professor Mihály Bächer and Ferenc Rados and Sándor Falvai.
  • Master Classes by András Schiff, György Sebők, Tamás Vásáry, Ferenc Rados, 1983-1990
  • Music Degree: Exceptional Student Program, Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Hungary, 1980-87