Hungarian pianist and conductor Tamás Vásáry, passed away on the night of February 5 at the age of 93. He was born on August 11, 1933, in Debrecen. He began his career as a musical prodigy, giving regular piano concerts even as a child. At the age of six, although still under the age limit, he won admission to the Debrecen Conservatory by playing Liszt’s Rhapsody No. 2. His first public concert was a Mozart memorial concert at the age of eight. At the age of ten, he became a student of Ernő Dohnányi, and at the age of fourteen, he won first prize in the Liszt Competition of the Academy of Music.

In 1953, he obtained his  diploma from the piano department of the Liszt Academy of Music. Zoltán Kodály played a decisive role in his life, especially after his parents were deported. Only Zoltán Kodály and the director of the Academy of Music, Ede Zathureczky, were able to secure an exemption for the talented young musician.

Tamás Vásáry’s international artistic career began the 1950s. His success in Brussels was particularly significant in his life: when his father was imprisoned under the Kádár regime at the end of 1956, the young pianist personally turned to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium for help in securing his father’s release. His father was eventually released from prison, and Tamás Vásáry joined his parents in leaving their homeland.

He lived first in Belgium, then in Switzerland. In exile, he gave an average of 100 concerts a year in the world’s most important music centers. Numerous recordings made for Deutsche Grammophon secured Vásáry’s worldwide fame and concert engagements, and he later made recordings for other labels (Chandos, Collins).

He was a regular guest at the world’s most important music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Berlin Festival, the BBC Proms concert series, the Holland Festival, and the Budapest Spring Festival.

His conducting career began in 1970 when he conducted the Liszt Chamber Orchestra at the Montreux Festival. He soon became the leader of his own orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, and then the Bournemouth Sinfonietta.

He visited Hungary for the first time in 1972 and soon after gave a course at the Academy of Music. However, he found his permanent « professional home » with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he became conductor and later music director.

In 2013, he established the Tamás Vásáry Scholarship, and in 2017, he founded the Gyermekhíd Foundation, which helps children living in children’s homes to integrate into society with the help of individual mentors.