Tamás Vásáry

Tamás Vásáry (; 11 August 1933 – 5 February 2026) was a Hungarian concert pianist and conductor who made an international career, living in Switzerland from 1956 and later in London from 1970. He was known for interpreting music of the Romantic era, especially by Chopin, Liszt and Schumann.

He began as a child prodigy, playing an early Mozart Concerto at age eight and studying at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from age twelve. He taught there as an assistant to Zoltán Kodály. He was a finalist of both the V International Chopin Piano Competition and the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in 1955, and of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1956. Due to political unrest, he left Hungary for Switzerland in 1956, recording for Deutsche Grammophon and playing concerts, in the United States from 1961 and regularly at European festivals. He moved to London in 1970 where he began to conduct, becoming joint principal conductor of the Northern Sinfonia and principal conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. In 1993, he became principal conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Life and career Vásáry was born in Debrecen on 11 August 1933. Vásáry was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta from 1989 to 1997. His 1998 recording of conducting Dohnányi's Violin Concerto released by Hungaroton won the Midem Prize. In 2006 he recorded both Piano Concertos by Brahms with his friend Peter Frankl as the pianist and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.