Hungarian pianist knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

World-renowned Hungarian classical pianist and conductor András Schiff, who has been living in London for many years and has been a British citizen since 2001, has been awarded a KBE (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2014 Birthday Honors.

András Schiff was born in Budapest in 1953 and started piano lessons at the age of five with Erzsébet Vadász. Later, he conducted his musical studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music with as the student of Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados, and then, in London, with George Malcolm.

Schiff has worked with most of the major international orchestras and conductors, but nowadays he performs mainly as a conductor and soloist.

András Schiff has been awarded numerous international prizes. In 2006, he became an Honorary Member of the Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany in recognition of his interpretations of Beethoven’s works. In 2008, he was awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal in appreciation of 30 years of music-making at Wigmore Hall, and in 2011, the Schumann Prize awarded by the city of Zwickau.

In 2012, he received the Golden Mozart-Medaille by the 'International Stiftung Mozarteum', the 'Order pour le mérite for Sciences and Arts', the 'Grosse Verdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland' and was made a Member of Honour of Vienna Konzerthaus. In December 2013, he was given The Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal.

As the website of Central London's Wigmore Hall notes, in the spring of 2011, András Schiff attracted attention because of his opposition to what he called as alarming political developments in Hungary under the government of Viktor Orbán. In view of the ensuing attacks on him from some Hungarian nationalists, he decided not to perform again in his home country.