The Germany-based composer Márton Illés studied composition, piano, and music theory in Basel and Karlsruhe with Detlev Müller-Siemens and Wolfgang Rihm. 

His works are performed worldwide by leading ensembles, orchestras, and soloists, including Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della RAI, clarinettist Sabine Meyer, among many others. 

His most recent album, released in January 2026, is “Bowed Spaces” (Alpha Classics label) with cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. He remarks on this album’s cover: “music can be tactile, truly three-dimensional…I can make it moan, scream, or roar…to draw out [its] vocal qualities…” His stylistic approach fearlessly dives into sound adventures like scordatura for an entire orchestra and electronica mixed with other sound sources, all of which create an intruguing palette of existential drama. 

Illés has taught music theory and composition at several German universities, and he collaborates regularly with the SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg and IRCAM in Paris. 

His distinctions include fellowships at the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, Villa Concordia Bamberg, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in New York, and the Cité des Arts in Paris. He has won prizes from the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Foundation, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Schneider-Schott Music Prize, the Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Prize at the 2017 Donaueschingen Festival, and the BBC Music Magazine Record Award in 2026.

His works are published by Breitkopf & Härtel and Edition Peters.