Celebrate the new year at Müpa Budapest with a lineup that ranges from Haydn’s cosmic storytelling to a grand folk gala and a dazzling Chinese New Year spectacular. Tickets are available online, and the season promises world-class performers, soul-stirring programs, and a celebratory mood for all ages. Events run from January 1 through February 27 at Müpa, 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.
New Year’s Concert for Young Audiences: Haydn’s The Creation – Highlights
Thursday, January 1, 2026, 16:00
How does a world emerge from chaos? How do you paint the arrival of light in music? When birds appear on the page, or the ocean roars, what happens in the score? Haydn’s The Creation brims with tone painting and sly musical “tricks,” and conductor Ádám Fischer curates the most vivid moments for Müpa’s traditional New Year’s afternoon concert designed especially for students.
The sung excerpts will be performed in Hungarian by soprano Rita Rácz, tenor Zoltán Megyesi, and bass István Kovács. The orchestra and choir are the same crack forces as the evening’s full performance: the Danish Chamber Orchestra and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir, led artistically by Erwin Ortner. Short and thoroughly engaging, the concert strips away spectacle and focuses the ear, firing the imagination—a quieter, more intimate start to the year, and a perfect pick for families. Recommended age: 12–16.
Conductor: Ádám Fischer
Performers: Rita Rácz (soprano), Zoltán Megyesi (tenor), István Kovács (bass)
Arnold Schoenberg Choir (artistic director: Erwin Ortner)
Danish Chamber Orchestra
Haydn: The Creation – New Year’s Gala
Thursday, January 1, 2026, 19:30
Haydn’s monumental oratorio The Creation dazzles not only with the Enlightenment’s harmonious view of life, but with the sweep of an entire universe conjured in music. In six days of musical creation, God forms the heavens and the Earth, the Sun and Moon, the stars, plants, animals, and humankind. There’s no better moment to marvel at it all—and to revel in Haydn’s humor and flair for depiction—than Müpa’s beloved New Year’s concert, once again conducted by Ádám Fischer.
His partners this year are the Danish Chamber Orchestra, with whom he shares a longstanding musical friendship, and Vienna’s Arnold Schoenberg Choir, renowned since its legendary collaborations with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The evening showcases three standout soloists: soprano Nikola Hillebrand, tenor Mauro Peter, and bass Andreas Bauer Kanabas.
Conductor: Ádám Fischer
Performers: Nikola Hillebrand (soprano), Mauro Peter (tenor), Andreas Bauer Kanabas (bass)
Danish Chamber Orchestra
Arnold Schoenberg Choir (artistic director: Erwin Ortner)
House of Traditions New Year’s Greeting 2026
Sunday, January 4, 2026, 19:30
Both timeless and fresh, intimate and ceremonial, this grand stage gala from the Hagyományok Háza (House of Traditions) has, for more than a decade, opened the year with the richness and celebratory force of Carpathian Basin folk culture. For folk music and dance lovers, it’s become as essential as the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert for classical fans.
“Ring through our night, and let us glimpse
our fragile plaything, hope.”
This year’s program is special: the musical editor is Miklós Both, current director of the House of Traditions, who casts new light on Hungarian folk heritage. The theme traces the mystery of beginnings and endings: the Word made flesh stepping into human time; birth already touched by the shadow of death, and death lit by the promise of resurrection. At the threshold of the year, the gala reflects on how every beginning contains fulfillment, every passing opens the secret of renewal, and our time brushes the eternal.
The two-part festive program draws on Carpathian traditions and is choreographed by Gábor Mihályi, Kossuth Prize–winning artistic director of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, who again elevates the night with riveting choreography and stagecraft. Joining are the dancers and musicians of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, along with leading guests: Kárpátalja Folk Dance Ensemble, Debrecen Hajdú Dance Ensemble, young talents from the Heritage (Örökség) National Children’s and Youth Folk Arts Association, tradition-keepers from Kalotaszeg (Țara Călatei), Hanu Cu Braga, StEFREM, and celebrated folk artists such as Andrea Navratil, Anna Sőregi, József Versendi Kovács and his students, plus organist László Fassang. Visuals by György Árvai; costumes by Edit Szűcs; animations by Zsolt Korai. Duration: about 130 minutes, in two parts.
New Year’s Concert – Matinée Encore
Sunday, January 11, 2026, 11:30
New Year’s Concert 2026
Sunday, January 11, 2026, 19:30
The Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra returns to Müpa with its traditional New Year’s concert—and a surprise program in store. Conductor: Gábor Hollerung.
Grand Chinese New Year Concert
Friday, February 27, 2026, 19:30
With the Lunar New Year ushering in the Year of the Horse on February 17, Müpa once again hosts the spectacular Grand Chinese New Year Concert. Since 1998, this globe-trotting series has brought the depth and breadth of a three-millennia musical heritage to audiences worldwide. In Chinese astrology, the Year of the Horse invites relaxation and carefree fun, and the concert leans in: from folk melodies and operatic reimaginings to eye-popping percussion and adventurous fusion works, all showcased on distinctive traditional instruments. It’s a shimmering bridge between East and West—exotic yet homelike, harmonious and inviting—telling the many stories of China’s culture in the universal language of music.
Dates and Prices
January 1, 2026 – Budapest
January 4, 2026 – Budapest
January 11, 2026 – Budapest
February 27, 2026 – Budapest
Organizers reserve the right to change the program and schedule. Prices: from $8.70 to $75.70.
Online ticket purchase available.
