Barnabás Kelemen

Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen has captured the attention of the music world in the last decades. Born in Budapest in 1978, Barnabás Kelemen started the Franz Liszt Music Academy at the age of 11. He was the Third Prize Winner of the 2001 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and received the First Prize at the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis in 2002.

Barnabás Kelemen collaborates with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony, Budapest Festival, Estonian National Symphony, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Helsinki Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Netherlands Radio and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.

He has performed with Zoltán Kocsis at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Bozar in Brussels and Carnegie Hall in New York and regularly plays chamber music with Alexander Lonquich, José Gallardo and Nicolas Altstaedt. In 2010 he founded the Kelemen Quartet which returned the stage after three years of hiatus in 2021 with violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha and cellist Vashti Mimosa Hunter.

Barnabás Kelemen’s varied discography has received critical acclaim. Kelemens recording of Bartók’s Rhapsodies and his Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Hungarian National Philharmonic and Zoltán Kocsis won the German Record Critics’ Award 2011. A recital CD with Bartók Sonatas with Zoltán Kocsis and Solo Sonata received a Gramophone Award in 2013. His latest CD with Vilde Frang, Nicolas Altstaedt, Katalin Kokas Lawrence Power and Alexander Lonquich won the Gramophone Magazine’s Classical Music Award in 2020.

In recognition of his achievements the Hungarian government awarded him the Sándor Végh Prize in 2001, the Franz Liszt Prize in 2003, Rózsavölgyi Prize in 2003, the Kossuth Prize in 2012, and the Bartók-Pásztory Prize in 2020.