MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bartok: Piano Music

He continued his studies at the Bucharest Music Academy and later at the Paris Conservatoire. Tamas has won numerous prizes in international piano competitions and early in his career he was awarded the gold medal in the International Claude Debussy Competition in Paris. He was then invited to become an Assistant Professor at the Music Academy in Bucharest. As a concert pianist, soloist and conductor, Tamas has performed in many of the world's major venues, and he is known in more than 20 countries. He has played with numerous great orchestras under such conductors as Simon Rattle, Jean-Claude Casadessus, Janos Fürst, Harry Blech, Kurt Redel, Carlo Zecchi, Mark Elder and Erich Bergel. He has often been invited to play at European music festivals, and his extensive chamber music experience has included partnerships with Nathan Milstein, Gyšrgy Pauk, Boris Bermann, Peter Frankl, Heinz Holliger, Boris Belkin, Mark Lubotsky and Cho-Liang Lin. His numerous recordings of works by composers such as Brahms, Schnittke, Prokofiev, Bartók and Debussy have received critical acclaim. As a soloist, conductor and chamber musician, Tamas has toured New Zealand extensively, frequently performing in the Chamber Music New Zealand concert series and with the country's major orchestras. He has appeared in the Christchurch Arts Festival and twice at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. Currently Tamas is Associate Professor of Piano Studies and Chamber Music at the University of Auckland. In addition, he regularly travels to Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States for recitals and to conduct master classes. Recently he has also gave recitals, conducted master classes and was Chairman of adjudicating panels of piano and chamber music competitions at the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne Victorian College of the Arts and Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium of Music.