About
Forget every stereotype you have about choirs.
Vox Ignis Chamber Choir began in 2023 as a project choir. After our first concert, given at the Teréz church on Király utca, the ensemble under Gergely Gulyás performed on and off over the following years; then in 2025, with invitations coming in more thickly and the members eager to continue, we decided to work together on a regular basis. To that end we founded the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir Association, which gives us the framework to organise concerts properly.
We are setting about our main goal with youthful energy: to break down, together with our audience, the stereotypes that surround choral music. We believe music really does belong to everyone.
Conductor — Gergely Gulyás
Gergely Gulyás was born in 1996 in Zugló, Budapest. He began his schooling in the mathematics stream of the Herman Ottó Primary School in the 14th district, and matriculated with distinction from Szent István Grammar School. He studied at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, completing three degrees: a BA in electronic music media arts in 2019, a BA in orchestral and choral conducting in 2023, and an MA in choral conducting in 2025. His most important teachers were Balázs Horváth (composition), Salamon Kamp and Csaba Somos (conducting).
His conducting career began with the Concerto Harmonia Mixed Choir, where he was artistic director from 2016 to 2018. For six years (2019–2025) he taught at Szent István Grammar School and directed its mixed choir, appearing with them at venues such as the St Mauritius Stadtkirche in Stuttgart and St Stephen's Basilica in Budapest. In 2023 he founded Vox Ignis Chamber Choir, of which he remains artistic director and conductor; from 2026 he is also conductor of the Béla Bartók Chamber Choir in Szolnok. A committed advocate of contemporary music, he has conducted the premieres of numerous chamber and choral works since 2018.
He is also active as a composer and in the theatre. He took third prize in the fixed-media composition category of the first Electroacoustic Music Competition in Pécs in 2017, and first prize at the Pál Járdányi Composition Competition in 2020. He works regularly in both repertory and independent theatre: he is musical director and conductor of the Szigligeti Theatre Szolnok's 2026 production of The Sound of Music, for which he also wrote the orchestration, and is a regular collaborator of the independent company Panker Produkció. He has worked as composer and music editor on several graduation productions at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, and at the National Theatre, the Katona Kamra, the Petőfi Theatre in Sopron and the Szigligeti Theatre in Szolnok.
Youth theatre matters to him: he founded the SZIG student theatre group and was its musical director, orchestrator and conductor from 2017 to 2025, staging large-scale productions including The Paul Street Boys, The Jungle Book, The Attic and The Little Prince. His concert works have been performed across Hungary, including at Müpa Budapest and the Liszt Academy, as well as in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The choir
Vox Ignis works as a chamber choir: a handful of singers per part, each able to carry a line independently. Most members are current or former students of the Liszt Academy.
Soprano
Rétháti Júlia
Júlia Rétháti has been singing as a soprano of the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir since 2025. She completed her university studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, majoring in choral conducting and music theory, and is also studying private singing at the Kodály Zoltán Hungarian Choir School. She is the director of the Dunavarsány Cantátika Male Choir and the Országúti Franciscan Parish School.
Szarka-Sipos Katalin
Katalin Szarka-Sipos graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in classical singing. She was a member of the Hungarian National Choir for a few years, and has been singing in the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir since 2023. She is the mother of two little girls and works in music organization at the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in curatorship at METU.
Székely Zsófia
Zsófia Székely has been singing as soprano of the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir since 2025. She is currently a sixth-year student of the vocal and choral conducting department of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and is also the conductor of the Vass Lajos Choir.
Alto
Mezei Katalin
Katalin Mezei graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest in 2025, majoring in vocal music and choral conducting, and has been singing in the alto role of the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir as an alto leader since 2023. She is currently a solfeggio teacher at the Weiner Leó Music School and the second conductor of the Vásárhelyi Zoltán Men's Choir.
Sokhegyi Eszter
Eszter Sokhegyi's everyday life is based on music: she works full-time as a solfeggio teacher and in her free time as a choir member, dedicating herself to pure joy in music. For her, singing is a relaxation, which she also practices with boundless enthusiasm in the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir.
Tenor
Hajnal Benjámin
Hajnal Benjámin completed his studies at the Bartók Béla Music High School in Budapest, where he studied private singing under Magda Szabó. He has been singing as a tenor of the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir since 2024. He is a software developer by profession.
Rozmán Ábel
Although Ábel Rozmán is a bioinformatician by profession, he has been singing regularly as a choir member and soloist in children's operas and various performances at his alma mater, the Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis, as a student of Tamás Bubnó, since he was a young child. He currently sings mainly as a tenor in the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir and the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir, of which he has been a member since 2025.
Varga Sebestyén
Sebestyén Varga has been a tenor singer of the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir since 2023. After graduating from the Bartók Conservatory in composition, he earned a master's degree in choral conducting from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and is currently a student at the institution's Doctoral School. He also works in the University's event organizer department and is the conductor of the Hungarian Police Choir.
Bass
Balázs Ádám
Ádám Balázs has been conducting since 2024, having previously played the flute for 12 years, including at the Weiner Leó Music High School, and after moving to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, he met the current members of the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir. Their first concert together was in March 2025, and about a year later he took on the position of bass leader.
Csillag Dávid
Dávid Csillag has been singing bass with the Vox Ignis Chamber Choir since 2023. He completed his university studies in Choir Conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, while also studying classical singing with Nóra Ducza at the Mary Ward School of Music of Budapest.