András Keller

András Keller is a violinist honored with the Liszt, Kossuth, and Prima Primissima Awards, founder of the Keller Quartet, and since 2007, Chief Music Director of Concerto Budapest. He is also a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Recognized globally as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician, he has built a distinguished international career.

Keller began playing the violin at the age of seven and entered the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest at fourteen, studying with Dénes Kovács, Ferenc Rados, and György Kurtág, and later with Sándor Végh in Salzburg. In 1983, he won the Hubay Violin Competition, and shortly thereafter, at the invitation of János Ferencsik, became concertmaster of the Hungarian State Concert Orchestra while also serving as a soloist for the National Philharmonic. Between 1984 and 1991, he was concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

In 1987, Keller founded the Keller Quartet (with János Pilz, Zoltán Gál, and Ottó Kertész), which won both the Evian and Borciani Competitions—two of the world’s most prestigious string quartet contests—in 1990. The ensemble regularly appears at leading European and American festivals and concert halls, and has toured extensively in Japan, Central and South America, and New Zealand.

Milestones in Keller’s career include performances with Sándor Végh, a commemorative concert at London’s Barbican Centre marking the 50th anniversary of Béla Bartók’s death at the invitation of Sir Georg Solti, and an appearance upon the invitation of Princess Diana. His solo and chamber recordings have earned numerous international awards, including the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis six times between 1996 and 2006. He has also been honored with the City of Bonn Award, was named Artist of the Year in Italy, and has received the MIDEM Classical Award (twice), Victoire Prize, Japanese Record Academy Award, Grand Prix du Disque (France), and the Belgian Caecilia Prize for best chamber recording of the year in 2007.

He is a regular guest artist at major international festivals such as the Salzburg Festwochen, Lucerne Festival, Montreux, BBC Proms, Mostly Mozart (New York), Berliner Festspiele, Schubertiade, Wiener Festwochen, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Prague Spring. He has led masterclasses around the world, including at the Internationale Sommerakademie, IMS Prussia Cove, Yale University, the Aix-en-Provence International Festival, Verbier Festival, Accademia Fiesole (Florence), and the Royal Academy of Music (London).

Keller made his conducting debut in February 2003 with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, and since 2005 has curated and directed the music programs of the Arcus Temporum Festival in Pannonhalma. In 2006, together with Dénes Várjon, he launched the Sándor Végh Music Evenings and founded the Végh Philharmonic.

He has performed in nearly all of the world’s most renowned concert venues, including Musikverein and Konzerthaus (Vienna), Royal Albert Hall and Barbican (London), Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus (Berlin), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (New York). He has also been an invited guest of internationally acclaimed events such as La Folle Journée, the Bangkok International Festival, and the China Shanghai International Arts Festival.

Beyond his directorship at Concerto Budapest, Keller is the artistic leader of several major Hungarian music initiatives. Among the thematic concert series he initiated are the Mozart Day, Beethoven Days, Let’s Listen to Brahms!, and the Celebration of Hungarian Treasures, as well as The Day of Listening, which has become a key event for contemporary music. In 2018, under his initiative, the Ligeti Ensemble was formed within Concerto Budapest, with its concert series held at the Budapest Music Center.

His appointment as Chief Music Director of Concerto Budapest in 2007 marked a turning point for the orchestra, expanding its classical repertoire while placing significant emphasis on 20th-century and contemporary works, many of which have been performed in Hungary for the first time under his leadership.

Under Keller’s direction, Concerto Budapest has collaborated with some of Hungary’s most renowned musicians, including Dezső Ránki, Zoltán Kocsis, Dénes Várjon, Barnabás Kelemen, Miklós Perényi, Péter Eötvös, and Gábor Takács-Nagy. International stars have also regularly appeared with the orchestra, such as Mikhail Pletnev, Evgeni Koroliov, Gidon Kremer, Sergei Krylov, Christian Tetzlaff, Boris Berezovsky, Isabelle Faust, Khatia Buniatishvili, and Thomas Hampson.

In addition to his numerous international accolades, Keller received the Liszt Prize in 1995 with the Keller Quartet, the Bartók–Pásztory Award and the title Meritorious Artist of Hungary in 2012, the Kossuth Prize in 2021, and the Prima Primissima Award in 2022.

Since January 2016, he has been a visiting professor at one of the world’s leading music institutions, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where, since 2018, he has held the Béla Bartók International Chair.