In the '60s, after completing his studies with Ferenc Farkas, he exploded onto the scene among the important figures in Hungarian music. He spent six month in Paris on an UNESCO scholarship. For twenty years he was a professor at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy in Budapest. His work was acknoledged with the Erkel Prize (twice), the Merited Artist Award, the Bartók-Pásztory Prize, and the Kossuth Prize. He was a founding member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.

Striking solo and chamber compositions (including three string quartets), experimental works (for example the one for zither and recorder, which he performed himself), concertos, songs and two important operas (Csongor és Tünde, and Az öt utolsó szín) - all this is a mere selection of his oeuvre.