November 7th 2016
It is with deep sorrow that we have to announce the death Sunday 6 November of musical giant Zoltán Kocsis (64). We will remember him as one of those rare great human beings.
Born in Budapest on May 30, 1952, Kocsis began playing the piano as a toddler. His career was launched at age 18 when he won Hungarian Radio's Beethoven piano competition.
Kocsis was considered the foremost piano interpreter of Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and György Kurtág, as well as a distinguished performer of works by Claude Debussy and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
He received numerous Hungarian and international awards and distinctions, including Hungary's Kossuth and Liszt Awards. His recording of Debussy's piano works won a prestigious Gramophone Award in 1990.
Kocsis founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1983 with Ivan Fischer and became musical director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997.
“His death is an irreplaceable loss for Hungarian culture,” said a statement from Hungary’s ministry of human resources.
