About
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 András Kemenes, Rita Wagner, Márta Gulyás, György Nádor and Balázs Réti. He received his Master’s Degree in Specialized Performance from the Basel Musik Akademie in 2015, and completed his Advanced 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 Kiefer Hablitzel Competition (Bern, 2017) and the Rahn Musikpreis Competition (Zürich, 2016).
This year, with his Trio Eclipse (clarinet, Lionel Andrey; cello, Sebastian Braun), he won third prize at the renowned International Osaka Chamber Music Competition. The trio is currently scheduled to perform all over Europe.
This May he made his debut in New York in Merkin Hall with the New York Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Eduard Zilberkan. In 2015 he performed Mozart's Piano Concerto K459 in Zürich’s prestigious Tonhalle, with Theodor Guschlbauer and the Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra, as well as Liszt's "Totentanz" in the Stadtcasino Basel with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. Last 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, Budapest the National Opera House in Tirana (Albania) or the National Theatre in Pogdorica (Montenegro), among many others.
As a passionate chamber music player, he has performed at the Cully Classique Festival, Davos Festival, and 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.