Artists

Tamás Vásáry was born on 11 August 1933, in Debrecen. He made his stage debut at the age of 8, when performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in D major, K.107 in his hometown, where he gave a solo recital the following year. From this time on, he performed regularly as a child prodigy. He was soon introduced to the leading figure of the contemporary Hungarian musical life, Ernő Dohnányi, who accepted the gifted youth as his student. However, his tutorial was relatively short-lived as the maestro left Hungary.

At the age of 14 Vásáry won the first prize at the Liszt Competition of the Budapest Academy of Music. After receiving his diploma at the Franz Liszt Academy in 1953, he became teaching assistant to Zoltán Kodály at the Musicology Department of the Academy. Due to his outstanding performances in Moscow and Leningrad he raised to stardom in Hungary. He gave concert recitals, and as the partner of Annie Fischer performed Mozart’s concerto for two pianos in E flat major. He performed with the best Hungarian conductors, János Ferencsik and László Somogyi. In the following years he was awarded at 4 international competitions (1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, 1955 Marguarite Long Competition in Paris, 1956 Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, 1957 Rio de Janeiro International Competition).

In 1958 his first Liszt-record with Deutsche Grammophon in London became the best record of the month, and it was also nominated as the best record of the year. His debut at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1961 was a huge success that also marked the beginning of his international career. He performed at 100 concerts yearly at the most renowned music centers of the world, in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Luxemburg, Stockholm, Oslo. In 1962 George Szell introduced him at the New York Carnegie Hall. He regularly performed with the most important orchestras and conductors of the world, as with Ernest Ansermet, André Cluitens, Paul Kletzki, Ferenc Fricsai, André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Eugen Jockhum, Erick Leinsdorf, Antal Doráti, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Sanderling, György Solti, Rudolf Kempe, Neville Marriner, Adrian Boult. 

Vásáry was invited to perform at the most renowned festivals in Salzburg, Edinburgh, Berlin, Granada, Aldeburgh, Tanglewood (U.S.A.), Cleveland Blossom, Streza, Hong-Kong, London South Bank Festival, BBC Proms, Dutch Festival and the Budapest Spring Festival.

As a conductor he worked with over 100 orchestras, including the world famous Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Washington National, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Denver, London Philharmonic, London Symhony, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Orchestra National de France, Santa Cecilia (Rome), Torino Rai, Spanish National. 

Vásáry was music director and principal conductor of two English orchestras, the Northern Sinfonia (1979-1982) and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta (1989-1997). He was Principal Music Director of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra between 1993-2004 and from 2015 onwards. In 2004 he was nominated as Laureate Conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He conducted several Mozart operas at the Aldeburgh Festival (Il Re Pastore), at the Sadlers Wells Theater in London and in Cambridge (The Marriage of Figaro), in Sevilla (Don Giovanni), The Magic Flute in Budapest. He also conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto and Gluck’s Orpheo in Budapest.

He made recordings with seven record companies (Supraphon, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Academy Sound and Vision, Collins Classic, Hungaroton). Deutsche Grammophon has published over 20 records with the works of composers like Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Mozart. Also made 8 Chopin albums in 1965, in 1983 he published 3 solo records of Brahms trios and quartets with the Berlin Philharmonics. Vásáry recorded two Mozart piano concertos with the Berlin Philharmonics and the complete piano concertos of Rachmaninoff with the London Symphony Orchestra. His Liszt record became the Best Record of Hungary in 1991, and his Dohnányi violin concerto recording won the Midem Prize. With Hungaroton he recorded all the symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms.

Vásáry gave a series of lectures titled Beyond Music about ten composers on the Hungarian Television. He conducted the Hungarian-Italian coproduction of Gluck’s Orpheo and Tony Palmer’s movie about Vaughan Williams (2007). In the past years he made movies for Duna TV about Liszt, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy and Kodály. In 2005 he gave a public lecture about Liszt for the Hungarian All-knowledge University. In 1992 he made videorecordings for the Italian RAI in Rome of the complete violin and piano sonatas of Beethoven with Uto Ughi violinist.

His chamber partners included Mstislav Rostropovics, Yo-yo Ma,  Isaak Stern, Henryk  Szering,  Jozsef Szigeti, Yuri Bashmet,  Dietrich -Fischer Diskau, Jan-Pierre Rampal, James Galway, Maurice André, Gundula Janowitz.

Since 2003 he regularly performed with ballet actress Henriett Tunyogi in Hungary, Italy, Spain, Israel, Japan and China. They were invited to the Budapest Spring Festival four times.

In 2003 he published his book Zenén Túl (Beyond Music). In 2005 Thomas Böttger published a book about him in Germany, titled Conversations with Tamás Vásáry. In 2010 his poetry collection Szavakol túl (Beyond words) was published. The first volume of his biographical novel titled Üzenet (Message) was published in 2013, the second volume in 2017.

Awards: Bach and Paderevszki Medals London, Honorary Member of the London Royal College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music. Received the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France. In Hungary he received the Order of Merit of Hungary Commander’s Cross, the Kossuth Prize, Szepes Mária Award, Millenáris Kölcsey Award, twice with the Golden Prize of the President of Hungary, Hungarian Heritage Prize, Bartók Béla – Pásztory Ditta Award, Pro-Arta Award, Ambassador of Hungarian Culture, Honorary Citizen of Debrecen, Honorary Doctorate at the University of Debrecen, Artist of the Nation, Prima Primissima Award, UNESCO Mozart Medal, Hungarian Saint Stephen Order, Honorary Citizen of Budapest, Dohnány Ernő Award.

In 2006 he founded the Kodály Zoltán World Youth Orchestra, that performs every year in Hungary and internationally (Brussels, Paris, Milan, Prague). In 2013 the Hungarian Government founded the Tamás Vásáry Scholarship.