"The first experiences that made me who I am, that is, what I remember, are the nature and animal world nurtured in me by my parents, as well as the love and respect of the creator and the practice of goodness. Some of the values of our family are sheet music, literature, and folk music, perhaps these are the roots of my current activities."
The Ferenc Liszt Prize-winning popular opera singer and worthy artist was born in Gyergyóremet in Transylvania on April 5, 1983. He also won several singing and folk song competitions at Imre Nagy Primary School in Csikszereda.
"The first experiences that made me who I am, that is, what I remember, are the nature and animal world nurtured in me by my parents, as well as the love and respect of the creator and the practice of goodness. Some of the values of our family are sheet music, literature, and folk music, perhaps these are the roots of my current activities."
He was successfully admitted to the private department of the Nagy István Zene és Képzőművészeti Lyceum, and then to the Music Academy in Nagyvárad.
After graduation, at the age of 18, he made his debut at the National Theater in Arad, and at the age of 21, he played leading roles at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest. His international debut took place in 2007 at the Cardiff Singing Competition, where he performed as a finalist under the baton of Carlo Rizzi. A year later, he was already singing in London's Covent Garden, and from 2009, for five years, he was one of the leading baritone of the Munich Bayerische Staatsoper company.
In recent years, he has also performed in Berlin, Vienna, Bordeaux, Munich, London, Tokyo and Madrid, working for example with Juan Diego Florez and Andrea Rost, as well as with world-renowned conductors Marco Armiliato, Ascher Fisch, Zubin Mehta and Kent Nagano.
In 2015-2016, he sang two lead roles in front of the New York Metropolitan audience.
In 2017, he appeared on stage in the title role of Erkel Bánk's Bánk, directed by Attila Vidnyánszky, winner of the Kossuth and Jászai Prizes, which debuted in October 2018 at the David H. Koch Theater in New York. Fred Plotkin, one of the best opera experts in the USA, an employee of WQXR, America's first commercial classical music radio, mentions his performance as one of the defining performances of 2018, and praises Levente Bánk Molnár's performance at Lincoln Center. His name appears next to lesser names such as Placido Domingo and Thomas Hampson.
In August 2018, at the invitation of the Hungarian National Theater, on the occasion of the "homecoming" of the Csíksomlyó Passion, he appeared on stage in the role of Pilate in a reimagined performance on Nyeregtetó in Csíksomlyó, in front of 25,000 people.
In the 2018/2019 season, in addition to performances at the Hungarian State Opera, he also returned to Munich. In the 2019/2020 season, he also sang in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, among others.
On February 21, 2019, his first solo album, titled Nagyok, melankolikusok, upletak, hösök (English: Giants, tragedians, comedians, heroes), was released by Universal Music Hungary.
In 2016, his artistic work was recognized with the Ferenc Liszt Award. In July 2017, he was awarded the title of honorary citizen in his home village of Gyergyóremet, and this year he also received the Hungarian Heritage Award. In 2022, he was awarded the Sándor Hevesi Award, established by the Hungarian Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI), in recognition of his work for the international recognition of Hungarian-language theater culture. In 2023, he became a Merited Artist.
Source: atempo.sk
Cover photo: Levente Molnár, opera singer with the Ferenc Liszt Prize Photo: Zoltán Máthé / MTI
