The refinement of classical music, the flavour of ethno, the freedom of jazz, and the power of rock. Fugato Orchestra was founded in 2000, with the aim of bringing classical and popular music closer together, enabling listeners of both genres to widen their perspectives. The blending of symphonic instruments with drums, bass guitar and electronics makes the instrumentation unique. Classical composition techniques are often found in many of the works of the Orchestra. The pieces including contemporary symphonic works, stylistic etudes, as well as compositions closer to jazz, rock, world music, or electronic styles are composed by Balázs Alpár, leader and keyboardist of the 15 membered orchestra. The majority of the members attend the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. Fugato's first album „Neander Variations” was published in 2004 and it received outstanding international reviews. The Orchestra is now known in Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, The USA, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan. In 2006 Fugato won the Audience-award of the Budapest Fringe Festival. In 2006 Fugato tours with a concert-program based mainly on the tracks of their first album Neander Variations, with additional new compositions, but the program also includes special symphonic arrangements of pieces of various artists like Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, Jethro Tull, Queen, Jean-Michel Jarre, Sting etc. In the Spring of 2007 the Orchestra placed 9th from over 1000 international bands at Europe’s largest talent contest, the Austrian Band Contest in Vienna and also won the Hungarian Live Award. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.