The lover of Béla Bartók's music has died

Éva Ott (1943-2024), founder of the Bartók Béla International Society Austria and the Bartók Béla International Piano Competition, has passed away.

Her funeral will take place on Monday, January 27th 2025, from 8:10 a.m. in Vienna in the funeral place of the Central Cemetery, Hall 3, entrance 3rd gate.

Eva Ott, was born in Budapest (Hungary). She grewes up in constant contact with music. After graduating from high school, she began her professional training at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, where she received pedagogical and artistic inspiration. A short time later, she obtained a diploma as a teacher of piano and music theory. In Vienna, she continued her education with a focus on concert piano, vocal accompaniment and composition.

Here she successfully graduated in "Song and Oratorio with Vocal Accompaniment". She was also taught in Budapest by Tibor Wehner and Magda Vásárhelyi, among others. Eva Ott later took lessons in Vienna with Hans Graf, Hermann Schwertmann, Robert Schollum and Prof. Neumann. She also received pedagogical and artistic inspiration from Viktoria Svihlíkova.

In her career, Eva Ott focused on both pedagogical and artistic aspects: she led a piano class at the Vienna Music Institute in Favoriten and performed as a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, salon musician and soloist in a baroque ensemble at various concerts.

Since the beginning of 2005, chamber actress Elfriede Ott – her cousin – has involved her in her own artistic activities. They together designed programs from Austrian literature and music. Eva Ott also played her cousin's piano at the acting academy.

In 2007, Éva Ott and her former students founded the Béla Bartók International Music Society of Austria, whose aim is to preserve and disseminate the composer's work. And in 2009, the International Béla Bartók Piano Competition for the young... and the youngest was launched. Let them work on the little masterpieces in the lower grades and also introduce the teachers to the series written for children!