András Schiff

Sir András Schiff (Budapest, 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born Austrian-British classical pianist and conductor. He has received distinctions such as a Grammy Award, a Gramophone Award, the Mozart Medal and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. In 2014 he was created a Knight Bachelor by The Prince of Wales for his distinguished service in the field of music.

Schiff was born in Budapest, as the only child of two Holocaust survivors. He received piano lessons from the age of five, from Elisabeth Vadász. In 1968 he won Ki mit tud, a talent show broadcast on Hungarian television. That same year he was admitted to the Franz Liszt Academy for Music in Budapest, where he studied with Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Rados. He also attended summer courses at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar in Germany, studying with Tatiana Nikolayeva and Bella Davidovich. He also studied piano and chamber music with Hungarian composer György Kurtág.

In London he met George Malcolm, a pioneer in the use of historical keyboard instruments. Schiff was allowed to turn pages at Malcolm's first concert in Budapest. The two became friends and studied music together. Together they made a recording of a piano duet by Mozart using a fortepiano that had once belonged to the composer himself.

During a tour in 1979 he decided to defect to the West.