Born: 1978, Budapest
Academic degree, university professor: associate professor
Studies:
He started his violin studies with Valéria Baranyai at the age of 6. At the age of 11, he continued his studies at the Preliminary Class of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in the class of Eszter Perényi, where he graduated in 2001. He regularly attended private lessons and master classes of Isaac Stern, Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág, Igor Ozim, Loránd Fenyves, Dénes Zsigmondy, György Pauk, Sergiu Luca and Thomas Zehetmair.
Teaching activities:
2005–2023: Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Chamber Department
2023- : Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Strings Department
2023- : Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Strings Department
Master classes:
Indiana University, Bloomington: regular guest professor
Major concerts:
Ha has played with famous orchestras at numerous prestigious festivals and in numerous prestigious concert halls of the world. Ha has played in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall of London, the Grand Hall of the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Santori Hall in Tokyo, at the Budapest Spring Festival, as well as at the festivals of Jerusalem, Lockenhaus, Ittingen, Kuhmo, the Paganiniana (Genoa), Moritzburg (Germany), Menton (France), and Al Bustan (Lebanon). Ha has been invited by the orchestras of such cities as Munich, Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Rio De Janeiro, Lahti, Rotterdam, Liverpool, and Prague.
Ha has worked together with such artists as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Denis Russel-Davies, Eiji Oue, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Rumon Gamba, Zoltán Kocsis, Tamás Vásáry, Miklós Perényi, Steven Isserlis, Dezső Ránki, Péter Eötvös, etc.
Recordings:
11 solo albums (Hungaroton, BMC, Naxos) of which the first, a double CD, (Complete Works for Violin and Piano by Franz Liszt – with Gergely Bogányi) has won the Grand Prix du Disque of the International Liszt Society. In October 2003, the recording of three Brahms-sonatas (with Tamás Vásáry) was awarded the Diapason D'or Prize. On his first live double DVD he plays all those works of Mozart which were written for violin and orchestra. Barnabás Kelemen was requested by Hungaroton Records to play, for the Bartók New Series, all those works of Bartók, which were written for solo violin.
Awards and honours:
1997: International József Szigeti Violin Competition – 2nd Prize
1999: Mozart Competition, Salzburg – 1st Prize
Trio Competition, Kuhmo – 1st Prize (with Gergely Bogányi and Tibor Bogányi)
2001: Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition, Brussels – 3rd Prize
2002: International Indianapolis Violin Competition – 1st Prize, six special prizes and the four-year-long right of use of the Ex-Gingold Stradivarius (made in 1683) and the Tourte bow.
2007: Central-European Festival of Classical Music, Zsolna – Grand Prize
2011: 6. International Melbourne Music Competition: 2nd Prize, two special prizes with the Kelemen Quartet
2011: 4. International Beijing Music Competition: shared 1st Prize with the Kelemen Quartet
2001: Sándor Végh Prize
2003: Liszt and Rózsavölgyi Prize
2003: The Gramofon Magazin had elected him to be Classical Musician of the Year
2001 and 2005: "Presence" Artistic Prize
2006: Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, Knight's Cross.
2007: Prima Primissima Prize
2012: Kossuth Prize
Contact: barnabaskelemen[at]yahoo.com