Artist database

Budapest, 30th May, 1952 - Budapest, 6th November, 2016

Born in Budapest in 1952, he began to play the piano at the age of five. In 1963, he entered the Béla Bartók Music School, studying piano and composition and in 1968, entered the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music as a pupil of Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados. His international fame began at the age of eighteen when he won the Hungarian Radio's International Beethoven Competition, and a scintillating solo career rapidly unfolded. He was invited to perform all over Europe, in North and South America as well as the Far East. In 1977, he was invited by Sviatoslav Richter to perform at his festival in France, and the two pianists also gave duet recitals together.

He has performed with leading world orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Orchestra. He has been a regular guest at international festivals in Edinburgh, Paris, Tours, Lucerne, Salzburg, Prague and Menton, and worked with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, Edo de Waart, Charles Mackerras, Lovro von Matacic, Charles Dutoit, Herbert Blomstedt, Michael Tilson Thomas and Lorin Maazel.

In 1983, he co-founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, and since 1987 has regularly conducted. He is also a recognised composer. He is deeply committed to contemporary music and has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with, amongst others, György Kurtág, giving world premieres of numerous Kurtág compositions, some of which are dedicated to him.

Zoltán Kocsis has recorded for Denon, Hungaroton, Nippon Columbia, Phonogram and Quintana, but is now an exclusive Philips Classics artist. He received an Edison prize for his recordings with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra of the three Bartók concertos.

His Debussy recordings won the Gramophone prize as well as the "Instrumental Recording of the year" award.

In Autumn 1997, he became general music director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Hungarian State Orchestra). As a result, the orchestra's repertoire has broadened considerably, and since his appointment, several works have been given their world premiere.
In recent years, he has toured many European countries, the United States and Japan with the orchestra as both conductor and soloist, and enjoyed immense critical acclaim.

Awards
1973 Liszt Award
1978 Kossuth Prize
1984 Merited Artist
1988 Bartók-Pásztory Award
1989 Award For the Hungarian Art
1990 Excellent Artist
1991 Maecenas Award
2002 Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
2004 Midem Lifetime Achievemen Award
2005 Kossuth Award
2006 Bartók-Pásztory Award