Eva Szalai

“Her exquisite musicality, noble performance and genuine devotedness to music make her playing attractive.”

– Dmitri Bashkirov

Pianist Éva Szalai was born in Budapest. At age 17, she was awarded the Grand Prize at the Hungarian National Chamber Music Competition, and the next year, the Grand Prize at the Hungarian National Piano Competition. At the Sixth Adilia Alieva Competition Éva Szalai took both the First Prize and the Special Prize for the most poetic interpretation. She won the Grand Prize at the Third International Alain Marinaro Piano Competition, and in 2016 she received the First Prize at the Semper Music International Competition, Italy. 

Ms Szalai has appeared in Austria, Chile, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United States. She has performed piano concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Liszt and Rachmaninov with such orchestras as Young Artists of Moscow in Spain under Vladimir Ryzhaev, the Collegium Mediterranée in France under Daniel Tosi and the Szeged Symphony Orchestra in Hungary under Stefano Trasimeni. She has performed in the presence of the His Majesty Willem Alexander of The Netherlands.

Éva Szalai studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, from which she received her master’s degree with highest honors in 2011. She pursued advanced studies with Dmitri Bashkirov at the Queen Sofia College of Music in Madrid, and Naum Grubert at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Ms Szalai has participated in master classes by such artists as Joaquín Achúcarro, Michel Dalberto, Aquiles Delle Vigne, Geoffrey Madge, Menahem Pressler, Anne Queffélec, Tamás Ungár and Michael Voskresensky. In 2014 she was a scholarship attendee at the PianoTexas International Festival and Academy in Fort Worth, where she studied with José Feghali, Yoheved Kaplinsky and Hung-Kuan Chen and performed in concert.

​In 2017 she started doctoral studies in piano performance (DLA program) at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, the subject of her research is Alfred Cortot’s Chopin performance.