Sir András Schiff

Sir András Schiff was born in Budapest in 1953. He received his first piano lessons at the age of five by Elisabeth Vadász. He later continued his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest with Prof. Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados and with George Malcolm in London.

Piano recitals are an important part of his activity, especially the cyclical performances of the piano works of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Bartók. Since the pandemic, he no longer announces the programmes for his recitals in advance: He chooses the works for the concert evening to suit the instrument and the hall.

Sir András Schiff performs with most of the internationally important orchestras and conductors. He focuses on the performance of the piano concertos by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven under his direction. In 1999, he founded the Cappella Andrea Barca, a chamber orchestra consisting of chamber musician friends and soloists, which he has since worked with closely as conductor and soloist, as well as with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since 1998, the “Omaggio a Palladio” festival has been held at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza under the direction of Sir András Schiff with his Cappella Andrea Barca.

In 2018 he accepted the invitation to become an Associate Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which met his growing interest in performing on historical keyboard instruments.

Sir András Schiff has been a passionate chamber musician since his early youth. From 1989 to 1998, he directed the Musiktage Mondsee, a chamber music festival in Austria that received high international recognition. Together with Heinz Holliger, he held the artistic direction of the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte at Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland, from 1995 to 2013.

The support of young musicians is particularly close to Sir András Schiff's heart. He teaches piano and chamber music at Kronberg Academy, at the Barenboim-Said Academy and gives numerous masterclasses. In 2014, he founded the mentoring programme “Building Bridges”, with which he provides targeted and sustainable support for up-and-coming pianists.

For 15 years, Sir András Schiff was an exclusive artist on the Decca label; on the occasion of his 70th birthday, an anniversary box set was released with all 78 albums he had recorded for Decca. Sir András Schiff has been recording exclusively for the label ECM since 1998: The live recordings of all of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas at the Zurich Tonhalle received the highest awards. For his album “Geistervariationen” with compositions by Robert Schumann, Sir András Schiff received the International Classical Music Award 2012 in the category “Solo Instrument. Recording of the year”. A chamber music edition in collaboration with the clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann contains the two clarinet sonatas op. 120 by Johannes Brahms as well as the Intermezzi for piano composed by Jörg Widmann and dedicated to Sir András Schiff. The most recent recordings are the two piano concertos by Johannes Brahms on a historic Blüthner piano with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (2021) and some of J.S. Bach´s key works played on a clavichord (2023). 
In March 2017 his book “Musik kommt aus der Stille” (Music Comes Out of Silence) was published by Bärenreiter and Henschel, containing essays and conversations with Martin Meyer about his basic artistic views, his playing techniques and methods of interpretation and his professional experiences as a pianist and conductor. It has been translated into several languages and republished in 2024.

In the spring of 2011 Mr. Schiff attracted attention when he took a public stand against the alarming political developments in Hungary. In response to the insulting attacks to which he was subjected by Hungarian nationalists, Sir András Schiff decided to stop giving concerts in his home country.

Sir András Schiff has been awarded numerous international prizes and honours:
In 2006, he was honoured with an honorary membership of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn for his outstanding achievements as a Beethoven interpreter. He has been the recipient of the Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau and the ‘Order Pour le mérite for Sciences and Arts’ since 2011. In 2012, he was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2022, Sir András Schiff was awarded the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig as one of the most important Bach interpreters of our time.
In 2008, Sir András Schiff received the Wigmore Hall Medal in London for his 30 years of musical activity there. In 2012, he was appointed “Special Supernumerary Fellow of Balliol College” (Oxford, UK). In 2013, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society's highest honour, the Gold Medal, in London. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Leeds (2014) and the Royal College of Music (2018). In 2014, he was appointed Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music.
In 2021, Sir András Schiff received the Antonín Dvořák Prize in Prague for his many years of promoting Czech composers through his numerous recordings and concert activities all over the world.
Sir András Schiff has been an honorary citizen of the city of Vicenza since December 2014 and an honorary member of the Accademia Olimpica di Vicenza since 2016, from which he received the “Lauro Olimpico” in 2023 for his extraordinary contribution to the enhancement of Vicenza's artistic and cultural heritage. In March 2024, he was awarded the “Una vita nella musica” prize by the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. 
In January 2012, he was awarded the Golden Mozart Medal of the International Mozarteum Foundation. He has been an honorary member of the Wiener Konzerthaus since the same year. 
In August 2023, at his 66th appearance at the Salzburg Festival, he was honoured with the Festival Pin with Rubies as an “essential artist who has shaped Festival history”. In June 2024, Sir András Schiff was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art I. Class and received the Bösendorfer Ring, which had previously been awarded to Wilhelm Backhaus and Paul Badura-Skoda.