Music of Pécs

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Pécs is a major city in southwest Hungary that has long been a center for music development in that country. The Symphony Orchestra of Pécs, recently renamed as Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1811. Its legal predecessor was the Musicians' Society (Tonkünstler Sozietät) founded by György Lickl (Johann Georg), a contemporary of Mozart and a disciple of Haydn, but the orchestra became a fully autonomous art institution in 1984, lead by conductor and art director Tamás Breitner, counting 92 member artists. Other major conductors and directors of the city's orchestra include Nicolás Pasquet, Howard Williams, Zsolt Hamar (current conductor).

Pécs will be the European Capital of Culture in 2010 and a new concert-hall is planned to be built in the city until then.

In the 2006 World Choir Games organized in Xiamen, the Béla Bartók Male Choir from Pécs won the Olympic champion title among several hundred choirs from 82 countries competing at the event.