Imre Kollár graduated from the conducting department of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in 1992. He worked as a musical assistant for the Hungarian State Opera (1991-1992), and then as the chief conductor of the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok and rehearsal conductor of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly Hungarian State Concert Orchestra) (1992-1994). From 1995 to 2008 he was the chief conductor and music director of the Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen (formerly Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra), before taking up the posts of artistic director and chief conductor of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra between 2008 and 2010. He has led a seminar on the works of Bartók and Kodály in Japan and an international master class for conductors in Spain. In 1989, he won the audience prize at Hungarian Television's Sixth International Conducting Competition, and later on, in 1994, took first prize at the Treviso International Conducting Competition. He has performed concerts with, in addition to every symphony orchestra in Hungary, the New Japan Philharmonic, Wiener Kammerorchester, Orchestra Filarmonia Veneta, Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, Niederrheinische Sinfoniker, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Parma Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, Johnstown Symphony Orchestra (USA), Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pori Sinfonietta, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as a guest conductor in numerous countries of Europe (Germany, England, Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Romania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Belgium, Finland, Italy, France, Serbia and Croatia) as well as in the United States, Israel and Australia. His chamber music partners have included such renowned artists as Vadim Repin, Dezső Ránki, Zoltán Kocsis, Jenő Jandó, Vilmos Szabadi, Andrea Rost, Dimitris Sgouros, Miklós Perényi and Gergely Bogányi.
