Krisztián Oláh
Krisztián Oláh is a pianist and composer, recipient of the Artisjus Award, the Junior Prima Award, and a two-time Orszáczky Award winner, whose career has skyrocketed. At the age of 17, he won the soloist prize at the Târgu Mureș International Jazz Competition and subsequently achieved great success in numerous European competitions in England, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. At just 20, he earned third place at the Montreux Jazz Festival, which afforded him the opportunity to participate in a two-week academic program where he performed alongside internationally renowned jazz musicians such as Al Jarreau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Joe Sanders.
In the following years, he received the Junior Prima Award, the Creative Art Award, the Orszáczky Award, and the Gramofon Award. In 2018, he became the first Hungarian jazz pianist to reach the finals in Washington, D.C., of the international piano competition organized by the Thelonious Monk Institute. He won the Orszáczky Award again in 2017 and 2022, and his composition 11:11 was recognized in the 2020 Müpa music competition. He was awarded the Artisjus Award in 2022 and 2025, and in February 2023, he received the Creative Artist Award at the Cziffra Festival. Since September 2021, he has been a faculty member of the Jazz Department at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.
His extraordinary musical talent became apparent at a very young age. He grew up in a family environment that was both inspiring and supportive, allowing him to develop his abilities fully—a nurturing that bore fruit early on. His music combines elements of classical music and compositional techniques with the improvisational flow and abstract rhythms of contemporary jazz. His primary musical motivation is to create a seamless synthesis of these two worlds, aiming to shape a dynamic, living contemporary musical experience.
In addition to his own projects, he is a member of the Nagy Emma Quintet, Daveform Quintet, and the Coltrane Legacy creative workshops, and he regularly collaborates on various projects with leading figures of the Hungarian music scene.