The Budapest Festival Orchestra is one of the major success stories of the Hungarian music scene, being rated among the world’s top ten orchestras; the New York Times has even gone as far as to say they “might be the best orchestra in the world”. We perform regularly in the most important of concert halls, from Carnegie Hall to the Musikverein, but alongside our international successes our most important mission is to bring the beauty of classical music to every layer of Hungarian society.

We believe that music can connect people with vastly different backgrounds and directions in life. We bravely venture along untrodden paths, and each year we come up with new kinds of concerts for the youngest generation.

Our educational programme is unrivalled. We bring Choose your Instrument sessions to schools; our regular Cocoa Concert programmes are now interspersed with Autism-friendly ones; Music Castle sees us making not just music, but also instruments alongside the children; and we work with hundreds of underprivileged children during the Dancing on the Square project. Our Community concerts mean we’re making ever more frequent appearances at alternative venues, away from concert halls where we can create an intimate connection with the audience, be it in nursing homes, abandoned synagogues, hospitals, child-care institutions, or prisons.