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Photo: Ivana Troselj

'I listened to your CD Two Worlds with great pleasure...I really liked it. You are good' (1999) - Miloš Forman, Academy Award winning film director of 'Amadeus'

'Listening to his music, the most exciting aspect is its freshness...highly melodic and far from predictable, his compositional style is modern and reflects myriad influences.' (1996) - Dita Zizi, Muse Magazine

Marián Budoš has enjoyed a varied career as a composer, classical guitarist, conductor and pedagogue, preceded by an earlier successful international career as a champion 1500m runner for the Czecho-Slovakian national team. In 1991, Budoš graduated from Matej Bel University with a Bachelor of Education, settling in Canberra the following year. In 1995, Budoš continued his studies in composition at the Australian National University. Budoš has headed the Music Department at Narrabundah College in Canberra since 2018.

Budoš has received a number of awards, the most prestigious being the 1998 SOZA Composer of the Year Award (Slovakia's highest music award) for his work Two Worlds, for classical and semi-acoustic guitars, which was televised nationally and later released on an album of the same title. Compositions from this album formed the repertoire of two tours performed in trio with Ivana Troselj and Ján Labant; a 1997 tour of Slovakia organised by the government arts agency Slovkoncert; and a 1999 tour of Australia.

Budoš enjoys collaborating on a diverse range of artistic projects. His arrangements of traditional Slovakian folk songs were featured at concerts for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games celebrations in Canberra and at numerous cultural and diplomatic events. In 2002, conductor Oliver Dohnanyi premiered and recorded Budoš's three guitar concertos with soloists Ján Labant, Rémi Boucher, Peter Remeník with Slovak Sinfonietta and Archi di Slovakia; later released on the album Heart on a Sleeve. Music from this album has also been used for film and television (A Touch of Courage: The Enlightenment; The Boe Sisters), and repeatedly featured on the US-based radio show Classical Guitar Alive. Heart on a Sleeve and Secret Wedding were further performed at concerts in Poland and Slovakia by Filharmonia Czestochowa, Lublin Philharmonics, and Archi di Slovakia.

Budoš enjoys working on projects with an element of storytelling. In 2005, he co-composed music with Ivana Troselj for the European tour of Seasons of the Soul, a sacred song-cycle and concerto, conducting cellist Monika Leskovar, mezzo-soprano Ivana Troselj, guitarist Ján Labant, vocal group Close Harmony Friends, and the Slovak Chamber Orchestra of Bohdan Warchal. Then in 2010 he toured the Once Upon a Time children's fairy-tale concert with cellist David Pereira, harpist Alice Giles, saxophonist Niels Rosendahl, co-composer/vocalist Ivana Troselj, and puppeteers Cathie Roach and Cathy Petocz.

Artists who commissioned new guitar works from Budoš include Ján Labant, Silver Sands Guitar Quartet, Ziggy & Miles Johnston, Tonié Field, John Couch, Ondrej Vesely, Karol Samuelcik, VCA Guitar Orchestra, JGO, Satori Quartet, Duo LaBarre, etc.

Budoš enjoys a busy schedule of composing: In 2013 he premiered two works for the Centenary of Canberra: Clepsydra (Water Clock), performed by Swedish quartet The Peärls Before Swïne Experience with the Griffyn Ensemble at Belconnen Arts Centre; and My Canberra (Symphony No.2) - performed and recorded at Llewellyn Hall, featuring Canberra Youth Orchestra. Home from Two Worlds (also 2013) was arranged for Sally Walker (flute) and Phillip Mayers (piano) and released on their album Hemisphere.

Budoš's Linn Linnaeus and The Magic Lute featured on John Couch's disc Ask Me Tomorrow have been broadcast repeatedly on ABC Classic since December 2015. Light (2015) premiered at the Australian Institute of Sport Arena; One Last Time (2016) and Last Train From Platform 49 (2018), premiered at Cithara Aediculae festival by Ján Labant; Tres Meditacions (homenatge a Antoni Gaudi), premiered by John Couch in Adelaide (2019) and featured on his album Whenua o te Manu; and A New York Minute, written for cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd was premiered in Canberra and performed on their 2019 and 2023 tours of Australia and repeatedly in the USA, including a performance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The piece is featured on Sono Luminus album Songs of Love and Despair and has been regularly played on NYC's radio WQXR.

Since its Wellington premiere by the New Zealand Guitar Quartet in 2016, The Passing of a Black Star (Homage to David Bowie) has been performed, recorded, or broadcast by a dozen of different quartets in Australia, China, Mexico, USA, Poland, France, Spain, and Slovakia.

In recent years, Budoš has developed his love of books and literature into 'book-concerto' projects. During his 2018 Barcelona visit, he was granted permission by acclaimed Catalonian novelist Jaume Cabré to adapt his international bestseller Jo Confesso (Confessions) to music. Adrià's Confessions for guitar and orchestra, featuring soloist Jacob Cordover and Orquestra del Reial Cercle Artistic, supported by the ACT Government, Australian Embassy in Madrid, and the Australian Music Centre, was premiered, and recorded by Radio Catalunya, at Barcelona's iconic Palau de la Música in April 2021. Australian performances are planned for September 2026.

Budoš has worked with Australian author Pip Williams since 2020 on setting her multi-award winning novel The Dictionary of Lost Words to new book-concerto for harp and orchestra - Esme's Words, featuring harpist Alice Giles - planned to be premiered in Australia in 2026.

Budoš is currently writing a new work for Trio Bohémo and a concerto commissioned by guitarist Ingrid Riollot and Sinfonia Lumina, France for their 2026 European tour. Budoš will also be a featured artist at the 2026 Taranaki Classical Guitar Summer School in New Zealand.

'The Passing of the Black Star is a very beautiful piece. It's got so much change, and variety, and dynamics, and energy and atmosphere. He's done an incredibly good job of including all those references to Bowie's last album.' - Eva Radich, Radio New Zealand

Marián Budoš — current to September 2025