BIOGRAPHY
“There is no ostentatious virtuosity here, no merciless hammering with pauses, but an intelligent and captivating differentiation that reveals the full richness of the composition.”
Pizzicato Magazin, Remy Franck
Benedek Horváth is a Swiss-Hungarian pianist based in Basel, renowned for his expressive interpretations and extensive repertoire. His international concert career has taken him to over 20 countries. Highlights include performances at New York's Merkin Hall (debut in 2017 with Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2) and at renowned Swiss festivals, including the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Lucerne Festival. Following a successful tour of China with concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, he will return there for another solo tour in 2026.
In 2025, Horváth set a special artistic accent with the project “Die goldenen Berge” (The Golden Mountains): an innovative combination of Bach's Goldberg Variations with visual projections that blends live music and film into a total work of art. This concept has already been performed several times with great success and is planned for further important venues.
As a soloist, he has worked with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and the Montenegro Symphony Orchestra, among others. In addition to his solo career, he is also intensely devoted to chamber music. For eight years, he performed with the Trio Eclipse, which won prizes at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the Migros Kulturprozent Competition. Other chamber music highlights include performances with the internationally renowned Dimitry Smirnov, Casals String Quartet, and Zakar Bron.
Benedek Horváth's artistic excellence is confirmed by prestigious awards: he is the first prize winner of the Kiefer Hablitzel Competition and the Rahn Music Prize. He is also a prize winner at the world-renowned Concours Clara Haskil (Laureate Prize) and Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition. In 2018, he was also awarded the Hungarian Junior Prima Prize – the country's most prestigious national award for young artists.
Horváth's discography is diverse and includes works by Janáček, Bartók, and Kurtág (Artalinna) as well as Liszt recordings with the Basel Symphony Orchestra (Prospero). Following his recording of the Goldberg Variations (IAN Records), his latest solo album featuring works by Ravel, Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff was released by Hungaroton in April 2025. In 2026, he will return to the wonderful hall of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz for the label Artalinna to record his new album, called "Bagatelles".
After studying at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and at the Basel Academy of Music with Claudio Martínez Mehner, he has been working there himself as an assistant professor since 2021. He received decisive inspiration from legends such as András Schiff, Menahem Pressler, Ferenc Rados, and Zoltán Kocsis.
2025/2026