Edvin Marton

Edvin Marton, on left, at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with Dima Bilan and Evgeni Plushenko.

Edvin Marton (born Lajos Csűry, February 17, 1974, Tiszaújlak, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian composer and violinist of Hungarian ethnicity. He became known as the violinist of the skaters, mainly because Evgeni Plushenko, Stéphane Lambiel, and other famous skaters often skated to his music.

Biography

He was born in an area of Ukraine largely inhabited by ethnic Hungarians. He was born into a musical family and at age of five was already learning the violin from his parents. He was eight when accepted into that alma mater for the most talented musicians of the Soviet Union, the Central Tchaikowsky Music School in Moscow to study under Leo Lundstrem.

He continued his studies with Eugenia Tchougaeva. He gave his first important concert at the age of twelve, with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. At the age of seventeen he became a student at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music Budapest, in the class of Géza Kapás. He took part in a masterclass given by Ruggiero Ricci, where he won the prize for the best participant, and he was also the Grant Prize winner of the International Course Competition in Berlin invited by Ruggiero Ricci too. Since 1993 he has been a "young soloist" for the National Philharmonic Concert Agency in Hungary.

He has performed with almost all the main Hungarian orchestras, and given concerts in Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. In May 1994 the famous violin teacher Dorothy DeLay invited him to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. where he gave a concert with Rohan de Silva. In New York he won a scholarship and was admitted to the class of Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School of Music. His studies in New York at the Juilliard School of Music brought professional contacts which meant changes in his musical style. There, in one of the most revered classical music environments of Juilliard, he mingled with DJs and jumped from high level classical to what is referred today as crossover.

While still in his twenties, Marton had traveled to more than thirty countries and played in such renowned concert halls as the Berliner Philharmonie and Vienna's Konzerthaus. But he was looking for a change. A former classmate said of him, "After he graduated from the music academy the talented, jovial and rotund Lajos disappeared, only to return as a slim, easy listening, music playing Edvin Marton."

He won his chance to play on a donated Stradivarius at a competition at the Orford Arts Centre in Canada in 1996, under the artistic direction of Yuli Turovsky. The echeloned violin was lent to him for his life by a Swiss Bank. "The violin I'm using is from 1697, it's a Stradivarius and was actually played by Paganini over 300 years ago. I won the chance to play it when I won a competition in Montreal in 1996, and now it's in Belgrade with us."

Education

• In 1983 Tchaikovsky Academy, Moscow for Prof. Leo Lundstrem
• in 1991 Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Zeneakadémia[1]), Budapest
• In 1994 Juilliard School of Music in New York
• In 1995 graduating at Music Academy in Vienna

Awards

• 2006 Emmy Award winner in America for Best Composition, for song "Romeo and Juliet" performed for over 300 million television viewers as part of the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games, during Russian Gold Medal Men's Figure Skater Evgeny Plushenko's routine

• 2008 Eurovision Song Contest — featured performer and co-writer of Dima Bilan's winning song "Believe"

Discography

1996 Sarasate

1. Eight Spanish Dances: Malagueña Op.21 No 1.
2. Habanera
3. Romanza andaluza
4. Jota Navarra
5. Playera
6. Zapateado
7. Spanish Dance
8. Spanish Dance
9. Caprice Basque: Moderato
10. Allegro moderato
11. Zigeunerweisen: Moderato. Lento
12. Un poco piú lento
13. Allegro molto vivace
14. Concert Fantasy on Carmen: Introduction. Allegro moderato
15. Moderato
16. Lento assai
17. Alegro moderato
18. Moderato

2001 Strings 'N' Beats

1. King Of The Forest
2. Miss You
3. Bitter Sweet Symphony
4. Una furtiva lagrima
5. Magic Stradivarius
6. Birdman /Romanian Folk Song
7. Secret Emotions
8. Fire Dance
9. Gloomy Sunday
10. First Date
11. Wind Of Spring
12. Panis Angelicus
13. Spaces Of Freedom
14. Sarabande
15. Art On Ice

2004 Virtuoso

1. Gypsy Dance
2. Beethoven 5
3. Love Story
4. Hibi-Haba
5. Aura
6. Guitarra Latino
7. Romeo and Juliet
8. Irish
9. Hungarian Rhapsody
10. India
11. Virtuoso
12. Dark Angel
13. Oda of Joy
14. Carmina Burana

2006 Stradivarius

1. Tosca Fantasy
2. Vivaldi Spring
3. Rio Carneval
4. Badinerie
5. Romeo and Juliet
6. Dramatico
7. My Love is Deep
8. Bellydance
9. Love in Venice
10. Tchaikovsky Remix
11. Ibiza
12. C'est la Vie- Instrumental Version
13. Ice Symphony
14. O Sole Mio
15. Crazy Violin
16. Hungarian Rhapsody No.6
17. Fireworks
18. Paganini
19. Bonus- C'est la Vie feat. Lou Bega

2010 Hollywood

1. Titanic
2. Tango Amore
3. Concierto de Aranjuez
4. Evita
5. Gladiator
6. Mask of Zorro
7. Batman
8. Zorba the Greek
9. Chopin
10. White Angel
11. Victory
12. Memory
13. Loving You
14. Feelings
15. Godfather

External links

• Official homepage
• Official russian homepage
• EdvinFM — online radio
• Unofficial Edvin Marton's Fan Forum