Arpad Joó

Joó held the positions of principal guest conductor of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the European Community Chamber Orchestra. (Residency: London, England) Later he became the music director and conductor of Brabant Orchestra in the Netherlands, conducting many performances throughout Europe (Brighton, England festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam). Joó also conducted concert tours with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra (Germany 10 concerts), Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany 25-25 concerts), Hungarian State Orchestra (England 8 concerts), Budapest Concert Orchestra (Netherlands, Italy, Spain 22 concerts), the Spanish Radio Orchestra (France, Spain), and Philharmonia Hungarica. He founded in Budapest, Hungary, the European Symphony Orchestra, of which he was the principal conductor since 1998.

In addition to his busy conducting schedule Joó taught master classes and has given lectures at various US and Canadian universities, such as Indiana University (visiting professor of music), Banff Centre of the Arts (Canada), Mount Royal College, University of Alberta, Canada; for two years in succession he has taken over the master classes in conducting for young conductors in Assisi, Italy from Franco Ferrara. In 1992 he served on the jury of the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition in Spain.

In 1987, Joó took the position of music director and principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica De Radio Television Espanola in Madrid, Spain (Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra) under royal patronage. He was only the third foreign–born conductor to hold this position (after Igor Markevitch and Sergiu Comissiona). In 1987, Joó recorded the complete orchestral works of Franz Liszt for which he has received the coveted "Grand Prix du Disque" in Paris, directly from the French Minister of Culture, Mr. Leotard.

In 1980 and 1981, Joó recorded the complete orchestral works of Béla Bartók with the Budapest Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras. Virtually all the newspapers and magazines in the United States and Europe such as Newsweek, Time, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday Review, Chicago Tribune, The Times, (even Sports Illustrated and National Geographic) hailed these recordings as a milestone both in digital (then new) technology and the quality of the performances. Stereo Review (1981) awarded the Record of the Year to Joó for his five-disc Bartók set. In 1982, he recorded the complete orchestral works of Kodály. For the next 15 years, he conducted many of the leading orchestras of the world and toured in Germany, England, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and the Netherlands.

Árpád Joó (8 June 1948 – 4 July 2014) was a Hungarian American conductor and concert pianist.

Maestro Joó (pronounced: Yo) was born in Budapest in 1948. His grandmother was an eminent pupil of István Thomán, at the Franz Liszt Academy (a direct disciple of Franz Liszt). At a very early age, his mother, herself an accomplished pianist and teacher had discovered his musical talent. At the age of five he began his musical studies with his mother and a year later he entered the then newly established Kodály School of Music, under the personal supervision of the Hungarian composer-educator Zoltán Kodály.