Born in 1974 into a family of musicians, Domonkos Héja first studied the piano, violin, viola and percussion. He graduated in 1998 at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, as a percussionist and as a conductor. In the very same year he won the Hungarian Television’s 9th International Competition for Conductors, and collected two prizes at the Mitropoulos Competition, Athen.
In 1993 he founded the Danubia Youth Symphony Orchestra of which he was the Chief Conductor and Music Director until 2011. Mr. Héja is a regular guest conductor of the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, furthermore conducts international renowned orchestras throughout Europe and Asia as well.
He made his début at the Hungarian State Opera House in 2001 conducting La Boheme. Between 2005 and 2011 he served as Principal Conductor of the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra, Chemnitz, Germany. As the most promising member of the new generation of Hungarian conductors, Domonkos Héja was awarded the Liszt Prize in 2003, the Gundel prize and Junior Prima prize in 2008. He has several very successful CD/DVD recordings. Besides his large and rich symphonic and operatic repertoire he is keen to introduce contemporary music to the audience’s delight.
Between 2011 and 2013 Domonkos Héja was the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest.
