Máté Szabó Sipos was born in Budapest in 1964 and commenced his musical education by studying piano. At the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, he first earned a bachelor's degree in conducting, voice and music theory pedagogy in 1990, followed by an honours master's degree after completing Ervin Lukács's conducting course in 1995. He served as assistant conductor with the Dohnányi Orchestra Óbuda between 1994 and 1996 and as a section leader with the Hungarian National Choir from 1989 until 2000. He has been the principal conductor of the Eger Symphony Orchestra since 1996 and served as assistant director of the Budapest Philharmonic between 1998 and 2000. From 1994 to 2005, and again during 2015 and 2016, he taught conducting at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. He worked as principal chorusmaster and artistic director of the Debrecen Kodály Chorus from 2000 to 2003. In 2000, he also joined the artistic committee of Debrecen's Béla Bartók International Choir Competition. After serving as chorus director and a conductor at the Hungarian State Opera between 2003 and 2014, he has since 2016 again filled the post of principal chorusmaster at the Debrecen Kodály Chorus, as well as that of head of the opera department at Debrecen's Csokonai National Theatre. He conducts both with his own ensembles and as a guest with several other notable orchestras and conducts opera performances both in Hungary and abroad (in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Switzerland).
