5 Best Performing Arts Venues in Budapest, Hungary

World-renowned conductor Iván Fischer, who is still music director, formed the group with famed Hungarian conductor Zoltán Kocsis in 1983. The orchestra has won international accolades and is hands-down your best bet for classical music in Budapest. International soloists and conductors are often invited to perform with the orchestra. Its home base was previously Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, but since 2005 the orchestra has also performed regularly at the new Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in the Művészetek Palotája (Palace of the Arts), and they have monthly Sunday Chamber Music concerts in their rehearsal hall on this side of the river, in Buda.Tickets can be purchased online or at several locations around Budapest, including Ticket Express and the Liszt Ferenc Academy.

This magnificent art nouveau music academy presides over the cafés and gardens of Liszt Ferenc tér. Along with the Vigadó, it's one of the city's main concert halls, hosting orchestra and chamber music concerts in its splendid main hall. On summer days the sound of daytime rehearsals from inside adds to the sweetness in the air along the pedestrian oasis of café society, just off buzzing Andrássy út.

The academy itself has two auditoriums: a green-and-gold 1,200-seat main hall and a smaller hall for chamber music and solo recitals. Farther along the square is a dramatic statue of Liszt Ferenc (Franz Liszt) himself, hair blown back from his brow, seemingly in a flight of inspiration. Pianist Ernő (Ernst) Dohnányi and composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály were teachers here.

You can purchase tickets to all performances and classical music concerts held at the academy through the ticket office. It's sometimes even possible to grab a standing-room ticket just before a performance.

Although it's a bit of a trek from the city center to Fonó, on the outskirts of Buda, it is a great place to see live folk acts. The music house has its own bar, several performance stages, and even its own folk-music CD shop. Concerts and dance houses are held on a near-nightly basis, and tickets are bought when you enter the music house.

This fiery group of 60 dancers together with its world-famous orchestra combines ballet and modern dance forms with elements of folklore and operetta programs for an impressive musical and dance program. Founded in 1952, you can catch their show at MÜPA, the Duna Palota, the Budapest Bábszínház, and other big stages around town. Check their website for performance locations and schedule.

A former electrical transformer station in Pest, the Trafó building today showcases contemporary and alternative dance, theater, and music performances by Hungarian and international companies. English subtitles are often available, but it's best to check ahead.