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12. - 19. Sep 2021
Franz Liszt International Piano Competition
Budapest
Farkas Gábor

Gábor Farkas (born in Ózd, Hungary, in 1981) graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest in 2005 after studying under Sándor Falvay and Attila Némethy. He finished his DLA studies in 2014 at his Alma Mater under the mentorship of Zoltán Kocsis and Tamás Vásáry. At the same time, he was a student of Professor William Grant Naboré at the International Piano Academy Lake Como.

He made his debut at the Carnegie Hall in 2016 as the winner of the 2015 Audition of New York Concert Artists & Associates.

In 2009 in Weimar he won the 9. International Liszt Piano Competition, furthermore, the Audience’s Prize and an award for the best performance of Haydn Sonata. In 2003 he received the first prize of the Hungarian National Radio’s Piano Competition, and in 2000 he was the winner of the Bartók Béla Piano Competition in Baden bei Wien. He was awarded the second prize of the International Greta Erikson Piano Competition in 2000 in Sweden and the second prize of the Andor Földes National Piano Competition in 1999.

In March 2012 he got the Franz Liszt Award (the highest Hungarian State Award for artists). In May 2009 he received the Gundel Art Prize, in November 2008 he was given the Prima Junior prize; and in March 2008 he was awarded a special state prize “The best young artist of the year”. In October 2015 he became an Honorary Citizen of the city of Ózd.

In the past years along the concert halls of Hungary he performed in the most famous concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall (New York), Teatro la Fenice (Venice), BOZAR (Brussels), Konzerthaus (Berlin), Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), NCPA Concert Hall (Beijing), Seoul Art Center (Seoul), Oriental Art Center (Shanghai) and Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo).

He was invited to prestigious international festivals, such as the Classical Bridge Festival (New York), Spring Green Music Festival (Kanazawa), Sendai Classic Festival, Kirishima Music Festival, Budapest Spring Festival; International Piano Forum (Berlin), Schumann Festival (Zwickau), Bach Festival (Thuringia), Pélerinages-Kunstfest (Weimar), Musicathlon (Beijing), Piano Festival (Vilnius), Kaposfest, Ferenc Liszt Festival in the Castle of Gödöllő, Hungary, Festival Academy Budapest.

So far, he has worked with such worldwide known conductors as Zoltán Kocsis, Ádám Fischer, Olli Mustonen, Charles Dutoit, Philippe Bender, George Tchitchinadze, Olaf Henzold, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Tamás Vásáry.

His debut CD recording entitled „An evening with Liszt” was published by Warner Music in November 2008, which won the prestigious Grand Prix as the best Liszt recording of the year 2009 given by the Franz Liszt International Society. His second album was a live recording of the Official Opening Concert of the Liszt Year, 2011 with Zoltán Kocsis and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, published also by Warner Music in July 2011. In 2017 Steinway & Sons published his Liszt CD in January, NYC, USA, and Hungaroton released his Schumann Album in May, and a recording of Piano Concertino of Ferenc Farkas became available for the public by Toccata Classics, London in June. He made recordings also for Brilliant Classics.

In March 2017 he’s been chosen unanimously by the Steinway Haus of New York, Hamburg and Budapest to be a Steinway Artist and represent the company worldwide and was asked to make further recordings for the company.

He was honoured to have a full time Professor job at the Tokyo College of Music as the youngest and the first European Professor of the prestigious university in May 2017. He is also a distinguished jury member at the PTNA International Piano Competition, Tokyo.

In 2019 he was given the Aoyama Music Award for the Concert of the Year.

His latest CD of Chopin Ballades and Impromptus released by in May 2019 earning a high acclaim in the circle of reviewers worldwide; the recording got a 5-star rating - among others – from the Fanfare Magazine and Piano News Magazin.

Currently he is the Head of Keyboard Department at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, and a Guest Professor at the Tokyo College of Music, Japan.