Artist database

21 December 1953 Budapest

Famous pianist and conductor, one of the most outstanding performers of the works by J. S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Dvořák, Janáček and Bartók. He used to work with the most prestigious orchestras and conductors of the world. Lately he’s been concentrating on solo recitals and conducting.

He started his music studies at the age of five with Erzsébet Vadász. Between 1968 and 1975 he was pupil of Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. In London his teacher was George Malcolm. At the beginning of his career he attended many international contests: in 1973 together with Miklós Szenthelyi he came in first place at the Leó Weinter Sonata Contest (Budapest) and in fourth place at the Tschaikovsky Contest (Moscow) in 1974. One year later he won third place at the Ferenc Liszt International Piano Contest (Leeds).

As pianist the most significant stations of his career are those solo recitals and concert series, where he used to play works by J. S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy, Ravel and Bartók. In 2004 he started a series where he performed all the 32 sonatas of Beethoven in time order. (In the season 2007/2008 he repeated the Beethoven-cycle in the USA.) As conductor and soloist he played Beethoven’s complete piano concertos in the season 2003/2004 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Ever since he was a child, András Schiff is a fond of chamber music - some of his renowned partners are: Gidon Kremer, Yuuko Shiokawa, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Heinz Holliger, Peter Serkin, Peter Schreier, Miklós Perényi, Robert Holl and Cecilia Bartoli. Since the late ‘90s he is also an active conductor, so he regularly gives concerts with the London Philharmonia, the European Chamber Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Birmingham Symphonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles and the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1999 he founded his own chamber music ensemble, Capella Andrea Barca, which comprises of internationally renowned soloists, chamber musicians and friends. Within the frames of a seven-year series they presented Mozart’s complete piano concertos at the Mozartwoche of Salzburg. In the seasons 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 they toured in the USA and had a great success at the Carnegie Hall and also at the Alice Tully Hall, where the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s Death was celebrated in frames of a memorial concert.

In the Bach Year (2000) he gave a number of solo concerts and he conducted the Matthew Passion. In 2001 he played Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in Vicenza and the Edinburgh Festival. With the London Philharmonia he conducted the H-minor Mass by Bach in 2004. One year later he conducted Haydn’s Creation in London, too.

He recorded almost every piano piece of J. S. Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Janáček, five piano concertos by Beethoven, besides compositions of Händel, Haydn, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Reger, Smetana, Bartók and Sándor Veress. A lot of his albums were awarded; he won the Grammy two times - first for the English Suites by Bach (Best Instrumental Soloist), second for Schubert’s song cycle, the Schwanengesang (Best Vocal Album), recorded with Peter Schreier. The second part of the complete album of Beethoven’s sonatas was a Grammy-nominee in the category „Best Classical Album”.

From 1989 to 1998 he was the artistic director of the one-week chamber festival „Musiktage Mondsee” near Salzburg. For the time being he is the artistic director of the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte that was founded 1995 with Heinz Holliger in Switzerland. From 1998 he’s been giving concert series with the title „Hommage to Palladio” at the Vicenza Teatro Olimpico. Between 2004 and 2007 he was guest performer at the Kunstfest Weimar in Germany.

Throughout his career András Schiff has been awarded many times. In 1977 he won the Liszt Prize, in 1991 the Bartók-Pásztory Prize, in 1994 the Claudio Arrau Memorial Plaque from the Robert Schumann Institute in Düsseldorf, in 1996 the Kossuth Prize and in 1997 the Leonie Sonnings Music Prize in Copenhagen. In 2003 he was honored with the Palladio d’Oro Prize in Vicenza and the Bremen Music Award, in 2007 the Italian Premio della critica musicale Franco Abbiati Prize, the Prize of the Royal Academy of Music and the Bach Prize of the Kohn Foundation. In 2006 he became honorary member of the Beethoven House in Bonn. In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him, allowing him to use the title Sir before his name. In 2022, the city of Leipzig awarded him the Bach Medal, and a year later he received recognition from the Salzburg Festival. In 2025, he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Prize by the Japan Art Association in Tokyo.