Pilz, János

Violinist János Pilz received his diploma at the Liszt Academy as a student of Dénes Kovács, after which he became the leader of the Hungarian State Concert Orchestra for two years. He won the Hubay competition in 1986 and the Zathureczky competition in 1988. While still an academy student he took part in the first concerts by the Festival Orchestra. In the 23 years between 1987 and 2010, he was a member of the Keller String Quartet and toured major concert venues in Europe and America. He received the Liszt Award as a member of the quartet in 1995. Many of their recordings (Erato, ECM) won prestigious international prizes (Midem Classical Award, Diapason d’Or). His and András Keller’s recording of Bartók’s 44 violin duos was released by ECM in 2002. In the same year he became first violinist to the Pulse String Quartet. Since 2012 he has been the leader of the Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra. He has been a regular member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra since 2010. In 2011 he was one of the winners of the orchestra’s Sándor Végh competition.