BORN: 1978, Pécs
ACADEMIC DEGREE, UNIVERSITY POSITION: assistant lecturer
STUDIES:
She started to play the violin at the age of five in the classes of Mrs. Gyánó and György Papp. At the age of 11, she was admitted to the Special School of Exceptional Young Talents of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where Ferenc Halász and Dénes Kovács were her mentors. At the age of 16, she got a full scholarship to the Conservatory of Toronto to the class of Loránd Fenyves. Following her studies in Canada, until her graduation, she was the student of Eszter Perényi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. She had been a frequent visitor to the master classes and private lessons of Ferenc Rados, Loránd Fenyves, Igor Ozim, Endre Wolf, Tibor Varga, György Pauk, Dénes Zsigmondy, György Kurtág, Jaime Laredo and Leon Fleischer.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES:
Since 2004: Franz Liszt Academy of Music – Violin
2004-2006: Music Camp for Strings, Kaposvár – Violin
INVITED LECTURER, MASTER CLASS:
2006: Kecskemét
2006: Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) – guest professor
MAJOR CONCERTS:
As a soloist and a chamber musician, she is a frequent performer in numerous European, African and American concert halls. As a violin and viola player, she has been invited to such concerts and festivals as the ones of Prussia Cove (England), Delft (the Netherlands), Seville, Budapest Spring Festival, Cannes, Kuressare (Estonia), Carthage (Tunisia), the Louvre Auditorium of Paris, South Africa, Washington and New York.
Katalin Kokas has worked together with such artists and ensembles as Miklós Perényi, Dénes Várjon, Péter Nagy, Gergely Bogányi, Domonkos Héja, Barnabás Kelemen, Philippe Cassard, Thorlief Thedeen, András Ligeti, the Chilingirien Quartet, János Rolla and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Bratislava. Following her 2002 victory at the József Szigeti Violin Competition, she accepted numerous very prestigious Hungarian, European and American invitations, including a concert in the chamber hall of the Carnegie Hall in New York.
AWARDS AND DECORATIONS:
János Koncz Violin Competition – 1st Prize
1994: Usti Nad Orlice International Violin Competition (CZ) – 1st Prize
1996: "Concerto Competition," Toronto (CAN) – 1st Prize
1997: Bartók Competition, Semmering (A) – 1st Prize
1998: Martinu Competition, Semmering (A) – 1st Prize
1999: International Károly Flesch Violin Competition – 1st Prize
2002: International József Szigeti Violin Competition – 1st Prize
Photos, videos of the Da Capo 2011 Farewell Festival held in November, 2009