Renowned Hungarian Pianist Tamás Vásáry Passes Away at 93

The internationally well-known pianist and conductor performed with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, and worked with more than a hundred orchestras as a conductor.

Tamás Vásáry was born on August 11, 1933, in Debrecen and began his musical career as a young boy: at the age of ten, he became a student of Ernő Dohnányi, and at fourteen, he won first prize in the Liszt Competition of the Academy of Music. He obtained his artist's diploma from the piano department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in 1953, and was then appointed assistant to Zoltán Kodály in the solfège department of the Academy of Music.

His international career began in 1961, when he made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall in London. From the 1960s onwards, he gave an average of 100 concerts a year in the world's most influential music centers, regularly performing with the world's leading orchestras and conductors.

As a conductor, he has worked with more than a hundred orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Washington National, the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Rai Torino Symphony Orchestra, and the Spanish National Orchestra.

He was the director and principal conductor of two English orchestras, the Northern Sinfonia (1979–1982) and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta (1989–1997). Between 1993 and 2004, he was the principal conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, later becoming its honorary principal conductor for life.

In addition to high Hungarian honors, he received the UNESCO Mozart Medal in 2012.