He was born in 1954 in Budapest. He studied Choral Conducting and Conducting at Ferenc Liszt College (now University) of Music and got further training at the master courses by László Somogyi, Eric Ericson and Kurt Masur.

From 1979 he was vice-conductor of Miskolc Symphonic Orchestra for two years. Subsequently, he taught Choral Conducting and Music Theory at Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, and he was the conductor of the local women’s chorus. At the same time, he was conductor of KPVDSZ (Kereskedelmi, Pénzügyi, Vendéglátóipari Dolgozók Szakszervezete, Trade Union for Workers of Business, Finance, Catering Trade) semi-professional symphonic orchestra. Since 1989 he has been the director of Dohnányi Ernő Symphonic Orchestra. Under his direction in the course of a few years the amateur youth orchestra developed to a professional level and it was formed into a professional orchestra in 1993.


Since 1980 he has been directing conductor of Budapest Academic Choral Society. He can claim an extraordinary success with this choir that has been ranked among the firsts in various European choir competitions, and has won several grand prizes, among them that of the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition of Debrecen and the title “Choir of the World” in Llangollen. He was also awarded the prize for the best conductor in 1984 in Debrecen.

He has been director of Honvéd Male Choir since May 2001 and artistic director and vice principal of Honvéd Ensemble since 2005. In 2002 he was appointed First Guest Conductor of Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra. Since 2002 he has been artistic consultant to Philharmonia Singers Tel Aviv.

He has travelled the world with his ensembles. They have been giving concerts in England, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland, Taiwan, Australia and Mexico. His choir was invited as one of the world’s thirty best choirs to participate in IFCM’s 4th Choral Music World Symposium in Sydney.
In 1988 he took initiative in launching a choir competition with a new artistic concept in Budapest, that since then has grown into an internationally recognised and acclaimed programme series. Following the example of the Budapest International Choir Competition new choir events have been realised under the name Musica Mundi in Italy, Germany, Israel and in the United States.

Gábor Hollerung is one of the artistic directors of INTERKULTUR International Musical Competitions Foundation, MUSICA MUNDI festival series and Choir Olympics. He is the president of the Hungarian Choir Competitions and Festivals Association, founded in 1988. Since 2004 he has been director and since 2006 artistic director of Zemplén Festival, a festival with great traditions.

As a guest conductor, apart from his concerts in Europe he is a regular in Israel, Taiwan and in the United States. He has performed in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the De Doelen Rotterdam, the Royal College of Music London, the Frankfurter Alte Oper, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Palau de Musica Valencia, the Sydney Opera House, the Taipei National Concert Hall, the Teatro Principale de Rio de Janeiro and in the Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem, conducting ensembles like the Taipei Philharmonic Choir or the Orchestra Sinfonica de Rio de Janeiro. In May 2004 he was invited to Rio de Janeiro, and in November he made his entrée in Tel Aviv as the conductor of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Zubin Mehta’s ensemble), in January 2005 he conducted the orchestra of I Pomeriggi Musicali. In 2006 he conducted the Orchestra di Extremadura, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. For 2007 he has been invited by the orchestra of the Staatstheater in Kassel, and by Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

He has been teaching courses of choral conducting since 1986 in Hungary and abroad: in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Taiwan and Israel. In 1995, he taught a course of conducting at the IFCM European Symposium in Ljubljana.

In 2002 he was awarded the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic. In 2004 he received the Franz Liszt Award.