Draft:Gábor Eckhardt

Gábor Eckhardt (born 1957) is a Hungarian pianist and teacher. He is currently Professor for piano at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.

Biography
Gábor Eckhardt was born in Budapest in 1957. He started his music studies at the age of six and his piano studies at the age of eight at the Zoltán Kodály Elementary Music School. He graduated at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, one of the leading secondary music schools, as a student of Edit Hambalkó in 1975. He pursued his piano and music studies at the Liszt Academy of Music in the classes of Sándor Falvai and György Kurtág. In 1980, he won the first prize at the Ernst von Dohnányi Piano Competition. He obtained his artist diploma in the same year. As a postgraduate student of the renowned professor, Dmitri Bashkirov he gained scholarship at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he graduated in 1982. Gábor Eckhardt worked together with famous artists such as Amadeus Webersinke, György Sebők, Tamás Vásáry, András Schiff and others. In 1996 he was awarded the Liszt Prize by the Hungarian Government for his contributions in the musical ambit. As a dedicated interpreter of Hungarian contemporary music he received the Artisjus-prize several times and in 2012 the Oeuvre-prize .He was a founding member of the Intermodulation Chamber Ensemble. He formed the Trio d'Echo piano trio in 1997 with András Horn and György Déri. Until 2009 he was a member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, one of the world leading symphony orchestras. Gábor Eckhardt currently holds a professorship at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, teaching students of all ages (Preparatory Class for the most talented students, BA, MA and Postgraduate). In the years 1991-2012 he was the vice-principal of the Bartók Conservatory, Budapest. Prof. Eckhardt is regularely invited to give masterclasses in Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, Poland, Albania, Italy, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and China. He also was the editor of the second volume of the piano transcriptions by Georges Cziffra. Gábor Eckhardt recorded four albums with works by Erik Satie for Naxos in collaboration with the hungarian pianist Klára Kőrmendi.