Zoltán Kocsis

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Zoltán Kocsis (born May 30, 1952) is a Hungarian pianist, conductor, and composer.

Born in Budapest, he started his musical studies at the age of five and continued them at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in 1963, studying piano and composition. In 1968 he was admitted to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he was a pupil of Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados.

In 1970, he gave his first important debuts both at home and abroad. During the following 25 years he toured practically all over the world. He performed together with the world's most famous orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philharmonia of London, the Wiener Philharmoniker etc. American critic Harold Schonberg praised Kocsis' extraordinary technique and fine piano tone.^[1]

During the last years he has often performed as a conductor, especially with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Hungarian National Philharmonic, where he is the current musical director.