Kristóf Baráti and Sándor Falvai receive the 2014 Bartók-Pásztory prizes

"Unusually, this year the panel judging the award decided to split the prize between two performance artists: Sándor Falvai and Kristóf Baráti," said János Devich, professor emeritus of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, who presented the prizes on behalf of Andrea Vigh, President of the Liszt Academy and chair of the panel. Kristóf Baráti is the first laureate in the history of the Bartók-Pásztory Prize to collect the award in the same year that he also qualified for a Kossuth Prize. The violinist was born in Budapest in 1979; his teachers were Miklós Szenthelyi, Vilmos Tátrai and Eduard Wulfson. An outstanding moment in his career came in 2010 when he won first prize at the Moscow Paganini International Competition, the ‘Oscar Prize' for violinists. Sándor Falvai, Liszt Prize-winning pianist, was born in Ózd in 1949. After studying at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory he was appointed professor at the Liszt Academy, he has headed the piano department in several academic years, and was rector of the Liszt Academy from 1997 to 2004.