Bela Drahos was born in Kaposvar in South-West Hungary in 1955 and entered the Gyor Conservatory in 1969, winning first prizes in the 1971 Concertino Prague International Flute Competition and, a year later, the flute competition staged by Hungarian Television.
Study at the Liszt Academy in Budapest led to graduation with distinction in 1978, then to further awards in Prague and, in 1979, at the Bratislava Interpodium. There were also continuing distinctions, including the Hungarian Liszt Prize in 1985, his selection as Hungarian Artist of the Year in 1986 and the award of the Bartok-Pasztory Prize in 1988.
Bela Drahos is the leader and founding member of the Hungarian Radio Wind Quintet and since 1976 has served as Principal Flautist of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. His concert career has included performances throughout Europe and as far afield as New Zealand.
He has more recently embarked on a parallel career as conductor, and in the summer of 1993 was appointed conductor of the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra.
For Naxos, Bela Drahos has produced several discs of the complete cycle of Haydn symphonies, to great critical acclaim. The conductor's rendering of C.P.E. Bach's Sonatas for flute and harpsichord was described as "a first-class musical offering " by BBC Music magazine whilst for Classics Today the second of two volumes of Vivaldi's Flute Concertos with Drahos as soloist "captures the smile that is ever-present in Vivaldi's music with unerring skill and purity of tone".
The complete Beethoven symphonies Drahos conducted with the Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia were described as "the Beethoven cycle to have" by BBC Music and "the finest ever digital cycle of the nine symphonies at budget price" by Classic CD. In addition, the recording Bela Drahos conducted of the Beethoven Triple Concerto became a BBC Music Magazine Editor's Choice.
Besides this enviable output, Bela Drahos appears for Naxos again as director in two volumes of Leopold Hofmann's flute concertos and as Flute soloist in Vivaldi's chamber work Il Pastor Fido (Naxos 8.550648) as well as demonstrating his burgeoning versatility by assuming the role of choral conductor in Haydn's Nelson Mass and Little Organ Mass (Naxos 8.554416).
