Tamás Vásáry was born in 1933 in Debrecen, where he would play Mozart's Piano Concerto in D major, K. 107 at age eight and then give a solo recital the following year. When he was introduced to Ernő Dohnányi, the leading figure in Hungarian musical life at that time made a unique exception to take on such a young pupil, although the lessons would last only a short time before Dohnányi left Hungary. At age 14, Vásáry won first prize in the Liszt Competition at Budapest's Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, where he would later go on to graduate as a performer in 1953 in addition to being appointed to be Zoltán Kodály's teaching assistant in the solfège department. He would then go on to give a solo concert as part of the “master series” of concerts, partner with Annie Fischer in Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major, and play under the batons of the János Ferencsik and László Somogyi, the country's leading conductors. The following years saw him win prizes at four international competitions, in Warsaw, Paris, Brussels and Rio de Janeiro. In 1958, his first Liszt album was selected Deutsche Grammaphon's best recording of the month in London. His highly successful London debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1961 would launch his international career. He would then go on to give 100 concerts a year in the world's most important centres of music (London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Oslo, etc.) He has regularly appeared with the world's most important orchestras and greatest conductors, including Ferenc Fricsay, André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Antal Doráti, Bernard Haitink, Georg Solti and Neville Marriner. As a conductor, he has worked with more than a hundred orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the New York Philharmonic, Washington's National Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Orchestra National de France, Rome's Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino. He has served as director and principal conductor of two English orchestras: the Northern Sinfonia (1979-1982) and Bournemouth Sinfonietta (1989-1997). He was principal musical director of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1993 until 2004, when he was named lifetime honorary chief musical director. More than 20 of his albums have been released. His chamber music partners have included Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-yo Ma, Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Jozsef Szigeti, Yuri Bashmet, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, among others. He is a winner of the Kossuth Prize and the Prima Primissima and Bartók-Pásztory awards, and is also an Artist of the Nation.