L'Europe du Piano

Benedek Horváth was born in 1989 into a family of musicians in Budapest. He began playing the violin at the age of five, but soon decided to dedicate himself primarily to the piano. Nevertheless, he still enjoys picking up his violin from time to time.

As a student of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, he studied with Andràs Kemenes, Rita Wagner, Márta Gulyás, György Nádor and Balázs Réti. He received his Masters Degree in Specialized Performance from the Basel Musik Akademie in 2015, and completed his Advancd Studies Diploma with Prof. Claudio Martínez Mehner, also in Basel. Numerous renowned artists have further contributed to his artistic development, such as András Schiff, Dimitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, Ferenc Rados, and Zoltán Kocsis.

Benedek is a laureate of the highly regarded Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition (Santander, Spain 2012) and was a finalist in the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition (Vevey, Switzerland 2015). He is also the recent winner of the Rahn Musikpreis Competition (Zürich, Swizerland 2016). His artistic talent has also been recognized through various prizes and awards in competitions abroad, such as in Hungary (1st Prize Kiefer Hablitzel Competition, 1st Prize Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition, 3rd  Prize Béla Bartók International Piano Competition, "Grand Prize" György Ferenczy Chopin Piano Competition) among many others.

His Trio Eclipse (clarinet, Lionel Andrey; cello, Sebastian Braun), was awarded 2nd Prize in the Orpheus Competition (Bern, Switzerland 2015) and was invited to the upcoming Adelboden Festival for a recital.  

Last year he performed Mozart's Piano Concerto K459 in Zürich’s prestigious Tonhalle, under the baton of Theodor Guschlbauer and the Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra, as well as Liszt's "Totentanz" in the Stadtcasino Basel with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. In April he returned to the Tonhalle to perform Bartók’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the Neues Orchester Basel.

As a soloist, Benedek has performed with the Montenegro Symphony Orchestra, the Real Filharmonía of Galicia, the Szeged Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra de Chambre de Lausanne and many more. His recitals have led him to various European cities, such as Vienna (Live broadcast on ORF Radio), Paris, Milan, Rome, Basel, Zürich, Gstaad, Krakow, the National Opera House in Tirana (Albania) or the National Theatre in Pogdorica (Montenegro).

As a passionate chamber music player, he has performed at the Cully Classique Festival, Davos Festival, the Santander Festival. Further chamber music highlights include playing with the internationally renowned Casals String Quartet and the legendary Zakhar Bron.

At the age of 13, Benedek recorded his first CD with the MATAV Symphony Orchestra, performing two piano concertos by the Armenian-American composer Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee, who later dedicated several pieces to him. Recently, he recorded a solo program for the French label Artalinna, with works by Franz Liszt and Béla Bartók. The CD was released in April 2016.