Balint Vazsonyi

Balint Vázsonyi (7 March 1936 – 17 January 2003) was a Hungarian-born naturalized American pianist, educator, international recitalist/soloist with leading orchestras, and political activist and journalist. He made performance history in playing chronological cycles of all 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven over two days in New York, Boston, and London. During the last six years of his life, he became a commentator in Washington, D.C., on the state of American politics.

From 1945-56, Vazsonyi attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from which he earned an Artist Diploma. He made his debut in Budapest at age 12 with the F minor Concerto of J.S. Bach. On 15 December 1956, Vazsonyi fled Budapest on foot for Austria, where he became a pianist in the refugee Philharmonia Hungarica under conductor Antal Doráti. He studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Professor Richard Hauser from 1957–58 and made his Western debut in the Großer Musikvereinssaal, Vienna in January 1958 as soloist with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under conductor Volkmar Andreae. In 1960, upon receiving a scholarship to study with Ernő Dohnányi at the School of Music at Florida State University, Vazsonyi moved to the United States, earning a Master of Music degree. Among the last pupils of the master, Vazsonyi became one of the last links in a tradition that stretched back to Franz Liszt. At FSU, he met another Dohnányi student, Barbara Whittington, whom he married on 26 February 1960.

In 1960-62, Vazsonyi resided in Zürich, Switzerland and in Wiesbaden, Germany, giving concerts and recording in Europe. From 1962-64, he became Pianist-in-Residence at the newly formed Interlochen Arts Academy where his son, Nicholas Vazsonyi, was born in 1963. He became an American citizen in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1964 and was awarded the Liberty Bell Award the same year. In 1964-78, Vazsonyi moved to London, England with his family for private studies with pianist Dame Myra Hess, from 1964 to her death in 1965. London remained his home base for concertizing in Europe, England, America, and South Africa, recording, and presiding over master classes at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, New England Conservatory, Catholic University, Peabody, and the University of Washington.

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