Miklós Perényi
Cello
Miklós Perényi was born in Budapest into a musical family. At the age of five he received his first cello lessons from Miklós Zsamboki, a former pupil of David Popper, and at the age of seven he was admitted to the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy Budapest where he studied with Professor Ede Banda. He made his debut in Budapest at the age of nine. He undertook further studies at the Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma with Professor Enrico Mainardi.
In 1962 he was a prize winner at the International Casals Competition held in Budapest. In 1965 and 1966 Pablo Casals invited him to join his master classes in Zermatt and Puerto Rico and this was followed by an invitation to perform at the Marlboro Festival in the next four consecutive years.
In 1974 he was appointed a teacher at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy Budapest, where he is now Professor of the cello department.
As an acknowledgement of his musical activites he was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1980, and the Bartok-Pasztory Prize in 1987. As a soloist and a chamber musician he has appeared in many musical centres and festivals in Europe as well as in America, Japan and China. He has a very extensive repertoire, including pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries to the present day.
Miklós Perényi is also involved in composing and his compositions include pieces for cello and works for small and large chamber ensembles.
In
addition to working frequently with the Keller Quartet, one of his other regular
performing partners is the pianist András Schiff with whom he recorded the
Beethoven Sonatas for cello and piano (ECM).
This disc received outstanding reviews and was awarded the Cannes
Classical Award 2005. He has made a
number of other recordings for various labels including Hungaroton, EMI-Quint,
Sony, Teldec, Erato, Col Legno, and Decca, and for Metropolitan Video. In 1999 a
CD was released by Hungaroton of works by Ernö Dohnányi, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltán
Kodály, György Ligeti, András Mihály, and Sŕndor Veress with the Hungarian
pianist Dénes Várjon. Also released was a disc of the complete works for cello
of Kódaly. A new recording of the
Bach Suites is due for release.