Sir András Schiff
Born in Budapest in 1953, Sir András Schiff received his first piano lessons at the age of five by Elisabeth Vadász. He later continued his studies at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest with Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados and with George Malcolm in London.
Piano recitals are an important part of his activity, especially the cyclical performances of the piano works of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Bartók. Since the pandemic, the artist no longer announces the programmes for his recitals in advance: he chooses the works for the concert evening to suit the instrument and the hall. Sir András Schiff performs with most of the internationally important orchestras and conductors. He focuses on the performance of the piano concertos by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven under his direction. In 1999, he founded the Cappella Andrea Barca, a chamber orchestra, which he has since worked with closely as conductor and soloist, as well as with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 2018, he accepted the invitation to become an Associate Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which met his growing interest in performing on historical keyboard instruments.
The support of young musicians is particularly close to Sir András Schiff’s heart. He teaches piano and chamber music at the Kronberg Academy and the Barenboim-Said Akademie, and gives numerous masterclasses. In 2014, he founded the mentoring programme ‘Building Bridges’, with which he provides targeted and sustainable support for up-and-coming pianists. For 15 years, Sir András Schiff was an exclusive artist on the Decca label; on the occasion of his 70th birthday, an anniversary box set was released with all 78 albums he had recorded for Decca. The pianist has been recording exclusively for the label ECM since 1998: the live recordings of all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas at the Tonhalle Zürich received the highest awards. For his album Geistervariationen with compositions by Robert Schumann, Sir András Schiff received the International Classical Music Award 2012.
In March 2017, his book Musik kommt aus der Stille (Music Comes Out of Silence) was published by Bärenreiter and Henschel, containing essays and conversations with Martin Meyer about his basic artistic views, his playing techniques and methods of interpretation and his professional experiences as a pianist and conductor. Sir András Schiff has been awarded numerous international prizes and honours.
[2025]