Péter Nagy

Péter Nagy established himself early as a pianist whose international presence developed with striking speed. In Hungary he has long been recognized both for his performances and for his work training younger musicians, while audiences across the West have encountered him regularly in recitals and collaborative settings.

He entered the world in Máteszalka, a town in northeastern Hungary, on April 26, 1960. Piano study began in childhood, and by age eight he had gained admission to the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. At eleven he earned second prize in an international contest held in Usti nad Labem, Czechoslovakia. Additional successes followed in his late teens, among them first prize in the 1979 Hungarian Radio Competition and an award the following year at the Bordeaux Festival of Young Soloists, the first such distinction he received beyond Eastern Europe. Those achievements opened the way to engagements throughout Europe and beyond, among them appearances at Wigmore Hall in London, the Louvre in France, and the 92nd Street Y in New York. Further travels took him to Japan, where he performed as soloist with the Tokyo and Yomiuri Symphony Orchestras, as well as to Australia and New Zealand. Chamber-music partnerships have formed a central part of his activity; among his regular associates have been violist Kim Kashkashian, pianist Zoltán Kocsis, cellist Boris Pergamenschikow, and several string quartets.

His extensive discography centers on the Naxos label, where he made his first appearance with Romantic Piano Favourites, Vol. 4 in 1988. Most of his recordings feature him as partner in duo and ensemble repertoire. He accompanied violinist Leonidas Kavakos on two ECM releases and, during the 2000s and 2010s, issued duo albums on the Oehms, Hyperion, and Berlin Classics labels. In 2020 he joined cellist Claudio Bohórquez for the Berlin Classics album Schumann: Poetica. Nagy continues to teach as professor of piano at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart.