Balázs Horváth has been the chair of the UMZE Ensemble since 2019. He is also founder and co-curator of Transparent Sound New Music Festival in Budapest, and is a board member of Péter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation. His composition style focuses on the convergence of popular and serious music, and he often integrates theatrical elements into his music scores.

His works have been heard internationally at the Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), ISCM World Music Days, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Music in Current (Tokyo), musikprotokoll (Graz), cresc. Biennale für Neue Musik (Frankfurt), the Taiwan International Music Festival (Taipei), among others.

Horváth, who has worked with renown ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Göteborg Symfoniker, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Sinfonietta, RSO Wien, Ensemble UMZE, and Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, has won several prizes from many prestigious competitions in Hungary and Germany. His most recent award was from the 2025 composition competition organized by the Left Coast Ensemble (California) for his piece „Charleston for Rozsda.” This score was dedicated to Hungarian painter Endre Rozsda whose painting inspired Horváth’s linking the piece to the Jazz Age’s favorite dance: “I imagined myself as a scanner, so it gives me positional options” to capture the spirit of the painting.He became a member of Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts in 2024.