Sándor Szokolay
Hungarian composer and professor (1931–2013)
Sándor Szokolay (30 March 1931 – 8 December 2013) was a Hungarian composer and professor of the Liszt Ferenc Academy, Budapest.
Life
Szokolay was born in Kunágota in a Lutheran evangelic family and began his music studies in Békéstarhos. Then he attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. His teachers were Ferenc Szabó and Ferenc Farkas. Between 1957 and 1961 he worked at the Hungarian Radio music department. Between 1959 and 1994 he was a professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. He retired in 1994 and moved to Sopron where he lived and worked till his death. His main works, operas, oratoria, are well known all over the world.
Szokolay was chairman of the Hungarian Kodály Society (1978) and the Hungarian Music Camera (1991–92), and he was member of the Hungarian Széchenyi Art Academy (1992).
Prizes
Wieniawsky-competition, winner (Warsaw, 1956)
Erkel Ferenc-prize (1960, 1965)
Kossuth-prize (1966)
Merited Artist (1976)
Bartók-Pásztory prize (1987)
Hungarian Art prize (1993)
Corvin-chain (2001)
Discography
Samson, opera in two acts, performed by György Melis, Erzsebet Hazy e.a., Chorus and Orchestra of the Budapest Opera, directed by András Kórodi, a production of Hungaroton (SLPX 11738/39), 1975.
“Sándor Szokolay” enters the record as hungarian composer and professor (1931–2013). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sándor, Szokolay and Hungarian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Sándor Szokolay” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sándor, Szokolay and Hungarian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q338630. VIAF identifies the subject as 116617678. The Library of Congress control number is n80086159. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2013, 1957 and 1961.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sándor Szokolay”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sándor Szokolay primary sources, Sándor Szokolay archive and Sándor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sándor Szokolay”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sándor Szokolay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.