Artist database

Áron Tálas jazz pianist, composer, drummer and teacher was born on October 8, 1990, in Tiszafüred. He began his musical studies in Mezőkövesd. He first played the recorder, percussion, and piano, then continued his studies in Miskolc at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music, majoring in jazz piano and jazz drums under the guidance of István Bundzik and Gábor Kacsenyák.

In 2015, he earned a Master of Arts degree in piano pedagogy from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music as a student of Károly Binder and Kálmán Oláh, and a year later, he also graduated with a master’s degree in drum pedagogy under György Jeszenszky and Ákos Benkó. He began working as an accompanist at the Academy of Music in the fall of 2012. In 2013 he and his band won the jazz combo competition organized by the Hungarian Jazz Society (MJSZ), and in the same year he was awarded the Junior Prima Prize. In 2015 he reached the finals of the Montreux Jazz Piano Competition. From 2014 he served as an adjunct professor in the jazz drum department at the János Kodolányi College for one year. Since 2017 he has been a jazz piano teacher at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music. He has also taught at the Jazz Department (small ensemble practice) and the Composition Department (popular music practice) of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.

In 2014 he founded the Áron Tálas Trio with József Barcza Horváth (double bass) and András Mohay (drums). In 2015 Attila Gyárfás took over on drums. The trio underwent a lineup change in 2020: József Barcza Horváth was replaced by double bassist István Tóth Jr, and Attila Gyárfás was followed by Csízi László (drums).

Áron Tálas is also a permanent member of the Borbély Műhely, the Zoltán Lantos Opensource, the Júlia Karosi Quartet and a collaborator on numerous other projects. He has performed with artists such as Nils-Petter Molvaer, Eivind Aarset, Ed Neumeister, Gyula Babos, Károly Binder, Kornél Fekete-Kovács, Erika Miklósa and Kátya Tompos.

In 2019 he spent a week as a visiting lecturer at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (Erasmus). In 2020–2021 he was accepted into the “Focusyear” scholarship program at the Basel Music Academy, for which a total of eight people from around the world are selected each year.

His first solo piano album, titled Blue Enough, was released in 2022.

Awards and recognitions:

- Junior Artisjus Award (2020)
- Gramofon Award (2018, Áron Tálas Trio - Little Beggar - "Jazz Album of the Year")
- Gramofon Award (2016, Borbély Műhely - Gyere Hozzám Estére - "Jazz Album of the Year")
- Montreux Jazz Piano Competition, Finalist (2015)
- Gramophone Award (2015)
- "Keyboardist of the Year" (2015, jazzma.hu)
- Hungarian Jazz Federation Combo Competition, 1st Prize (2013)
- Junior Prima Award (2013)
- "Keyboardist of the Year" (2013, jazzma.hu)