Márta Fábián (born 1946 in Budapest) is an award-winning Hungarian cimbalom player and soloist.
Fábián began playing the cimbalom at the age of 8. Since 1956 she has been a member of the Broadcast Children Choir. She received a diploma at the Cimbalom Department of the Béla Bartók Musical Secondary School in 1964 and at the Pedagogy Department of the Ferenc Liszt Academy in 1967.
She was the cimbalom player of the Budapest Dance Ensemble from 1967 to 1973, among many other activities. She plays contemporary music with lyrics in modern and classical style, and she also plays music for films. To have enough time to prepare and make her first solo gramophone record ( CIMBALOM RECITAL Hungaroton SLPX 11686 ), she had to leave the ensemble. She made a contract with the Komische Oper in Berlin, where she played from 1973 to 1975 in the Háry János ( opera of Zoltán Kodály ), directed by Walter Felsenstein. After that she worked with András Mihály, György Kurtág. She played three compositions on that record and received the first prize of the French Disc Academy in 1977.
Starting in 1974, she was soloist of the National Philharmony for twenty years. She is connected with several composers, including Kurtág, R. Maros, Kocsár, Ránki, Láng, Szokolay, Petrovics, Hidas, L. Sáry, Vántus, Balassa, Hollós, Vajda, M. Maros, Eötvös etc. Other foreign composers she has worked with are B.A.Zimmermann, H. Dutilleux, Boulez, Holliger, D. Schnebel, K. Huber, J. Petric, André Bon, R. Wittinger, Liza Lim, etc. She has 10 records of her own and plays in more than 20 records published by different companies ( HUNGAROTON, HARMONIA MUNDI, ERATO, Sony etc.).
She is returning guest of the European festivals of high rans: Holland Festival, Warsawian Autumn, Biennales of Berlin, Venice, Zagreb, Helsinki, München, Wien Modern, Salzburger Festspiele, Bartók Seminary in Szombathely, Avignon, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Proms (London), I.G.M.M. Festival in Graz, Athens; Welfmusiktage (Essen), Mondsee Festival, György Kurtág Festival, Milano etc. She had duos with guitar and with cimbalom, trios with flute and guitar, flute and cello. She was member of the Budapest Chamber Ensemble, since the foundation till the ceasing.
She played more times with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and since more 10 years with the Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt). She played since 1994 the composition Psychokosmos of Eötvös twenty times in different towns of Europe, this work is composed for her, cimbalom solo with great orchestra, as conductor the composer. She received the Liszt-prize in 1979, she is meritorious artist in 1988. She gave concerts in Mexico, in the United States, in Iceland, in almost all countries of Europe, in Egypt, in Israel etc. She played in the World Exposition of Sevilla, this year in Lisbon. She worked with Doráti, ten concerts in Washington, Detroit, Florence, with Abbado in the G. Mahler Jugend Orchester and with the Berliner Philharmonie, with Boulez E. Intercontemporain and E. Modern, with Eötvös in the two finally mentioned and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Süddeutsche R.O., K.R.S.O.( Köln ), O.R.F. Symphonie Orchestra, BBC Symphonie Orchestra, Radio Kamer Oukest ( Hilversum ), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Monnaie Orchestra ( Bruxelles ), Budapesti Fesztivál Zenekar, with him as composer and conductor a collaboration more as 30 years since the diploma composition of Eötvös. She worked with many well-snown conductors as Eric Leinsdorf, R. Frühbeck de Burgos, K. Meller, L. Hager, T. Vásáry, Z. Kocsis, E. Imbal, W. Ashkenazy, J. Ferencsik, Gy. Lehel, H. Zender, I. Metzmacher, J. Nott, M. Caridis, M. Stenz, O. Sallaberger, J. P. Saraste, Neeme Jarvi, Olivier Cuendet etc. She gives master-course for young musicians.