BIOGRAPHY

András Keller has enjoyed a varied career as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician at the highest international level. His early studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest led to many collaborations with György Kurtág, whose works he has been premiering and performing worldwide since 1978. He has also enjoyed working intensively with Dénes Kovács, Ferenc Rados and, until his death, Sándor Végh.

András Keller founded the Keller String Quartet in 1987 and has since given master classes and concerts throughout the world. As both chamber musician and soloist, he has appeared in every European country, performing at many prestigious festivals such as Edinburgh, Lucerne, Aldeburgh, Schleswig-Holstein, and the BBC Proms. Outside of Europe, András Keller has been invited to New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington’s Library of Congress, and many cities in Japan, China, and Korea. During his career he has worked with world-renowned artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Boris Pergamenschikow, Tabea Zimmerman, Truls Mørk, Zoltán Kocsis, Miklós Perényi, Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Evgeni Koroliov, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Lubimov, Juliane Banse, Anna Vinnitskaya, Vadim Repin, Isabelle Faust, and Steven Kovacevic.

The recipient of the Premio Franco Abbiati, Liszt Prize, and Bartók-Pásztory Prize, he was named an Artist of Merit of Hungary and was also nominated for the United Kingdom’s Royal Philharmonic Society Award. His recordings have been awarded the Caecilia Prix (BE), Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Edison Award (NL), Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros (FR), MIDEM Classical Award (FR), Gramophon Award (UK) and Record Academy Award (JP).
András Keller was the Artistic Director of the Arcus Temporum Festival in Pannonhalma between 2004-2010 and has been holding to this position again since 2016. He was also the founder and artistic director of the International Sándor Végh String Quartet Competition. In 2007, he was appointed as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Concerto Budapest, formerly known as the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra. Under his leadership, Concerto Budapest has earned a reputation as one of the most respected Hungarian touring orchestras, annually presenting over sixty concerts in Budapest, in addition to concerts and festival appearances in China, France, Germany, Poland, Japan, South-Korea and the United States.

For more than 10 years now, András Keller teaches annually at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and is a regular guest of the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove. In 2018, he was a guest professor at Verbier Festival as well. Between 2012-2015, he served as the head of the Chamber Music Department at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Since 2016, he has been teaching at the violin faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, which also appointed him as Béla Bartók Internaional Chair in 2018. Recently, he founded the Hungarian Quartet with János Pilz (founding member of the Keller Quartet), Gábor Homoki and László Fenyő.