Dénes Várjon

Dénes Várjon’s sensational technique, deep musicality and wide range of interests have made him a highly regarded participant in international music-making. An acclaimed soloist and chamber musician, he is also an artistic leader of festivals and a sought-after piano pedagogue.  

As a soloist he performs in major international concert series, including at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and London’s Wigmore Hall. He is frequently invited to work with leading symphony orchestras, such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He has worked with conductors including Georg Solti, Sándor Végh, Iván Fischer, Adam Fischer, Heinz Holliger, Horst Stein, Leopold Hager and Zoltán Kocsis. He regularly appears at leading international festivals from Malboro to Salzburg to Edinburgh.  

As a chamber musician he works regularly with fellow musicians such as Steven Isserlis, Tabea Zimmermann, Kim Kashkashian, Jörg Widmann, Leonidas Kavakos, András Schiff, Heinz Holliger, Miklós Perényi and Joshua Bell. He enjoyed a close collaboration with Alfred Brendel: their joint Liszt project was presented in the UK and Italy, among other countries. 

Dénes Várjon also gives regular four-hand and two-piano recitals with his wife Izabella Simon. In the past decade they have led several chamber music festivals, the most recent being kamara.hu at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest.  

He has recorded for Naxos, Capriccio and Hungaroton, to critical acclaim. Teldec released his CD of Sándor Veress’s Hommage à Paul Klee, performed with András Schiff, Heinz Holliger and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. His recording Hommage à Géza Anda was internationally praised. In 2012 ECM released his solo CD Precipitando of works by Berg, Janáček and Liszt. In 2015 he recorded Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the WDR Symphony Orchestra and Heinz Holliger, and all five Beethoven piano concertos with Concerto Budapest and András Keller.  

Dénes Várjon graduated from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in 1991, where his professors included Sándor Falvai, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados. Parallel to his studies, he regularly participated in masterclasses with András Schiff. Dénes Várjon won first prize at the Piano Competition of Hungarian Radio, at the Leó Weiner Chamber Music Competition in Budapest and at the Géza Anda Competition in Zurich. He has been awarded the Franz Liszt, Sándor Veress and Bartók-Pásztory prizes. In 2020 he received the Kossuth Prize, Hungary’s top award for culture.