János Pilz

Violinist János Pilz received his diploma from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music as a student of Dénes Kovács, after which he was concertmaster of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra for two years. He is a founding member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and took part in its first concerts as a Liszt Academy student. He won the 1986 Hubay Violin Competition and the 1988 Zathureczky Violin Competition. As a member of the Keller String Quartet, he was awarded first prize at two different string quartet competitions in 1990, one in Evian and one in Reggio Emilia. Between 1987 and 2010 he performed with the string quartet in the largest concert halls of Europe and North America. Quite a few of their studio recordings (Erato, ECM) garnered major international awards (MIDEM Classical Award, Diapason d’Or). In 1995 he received the Liszt Ferenc Prize as part of the quartet. His and András Keller’s recording of Bartók’s 44 Duos for Two Violins was released by ECM in 2002. From that year onward, he was the first violinist of the Pulzus string quartet for 16 years, as well as concertmaster of the Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra from 2012. He has played in the Budapest Festival Orchestra since 2010, and he was among the winners of the orchestra’s Sándor Végh Competition in the following year. He has led the Concertino series of the BFO as concertmaster since its inception in 2018. He has been a lecturer at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music since 2024.