Anita Balazs

Cello

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Bard Conservatory of Music: Preparatory Division

Biography: Hungarian cellist Anita Balázs was born into a musical family, and started her music studies at the age of 5. From early childhood, she has been giving concerts in Europe, taking part in international festivals and masterclasses in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Croatia, France and Switzerland with professors such as Heidi Litschauer, László Fenyő, Philippe Muller and Wolfgang Boettcher. At the age of 17 she was admitted to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music of Budapest, Hungary in the class of Laszlo Mezo(Bartok Quartet) where she obtained both her Bachelor's and first MASTER's degree. From fall 2012, she also studied under Prof. Philippe Muller in France, attending two schools at the same time in Hungary and France. She holds an Artist’s Diploma from Montclair State University where she studied with Nicholas Tzavaras (Shanghai Quartet) as well as a Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale School of Music where she studied with legendary cellist and teacher Aldot Parisot ,as well as Ole Akahoshi, Ani Kavafian, Peter Frankl, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Paul Watkins (Emerson String Quartet)- to whom she served as graduate assistant. Laureate of several international competitions such as the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Porec, Croatia or the Alfredo e Vanda Marcosig International Competition in Italy, she has also been awarded 1st prize as well as the Grand Prix of the Jury at the Janos Starker Competition in Hungary and 1st prize at the International Cello Competition in Liezen, Austria.

She has performed before audiences all around Europe and the United States and has been invited to play as soloist with famous Hungarian and European orchestras and conductors such as Andras Ligeti, Izaki Masahiro and Kenneth Lam from the age of 12. She also performed in world-famous venues such as the Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera, Philharmonie de Paris, or the Palace of the Arts of Budapest, Jazz at Lincoln Center. Throughout her career, she has played with renowned artists such as Rodion

Zamuruev, Julian Gargiulo, David Chan, Zoltan Kocsis, Ole Akahoshi, Leon Botstein or Peter Oundjian and Tracy Bonham. She is invited every year to participate in the "Les Pianos Folies du Touquet" piano festival in Le Touquet, France as soloist and chamber musician among world-famous pianists such as Boris Berezovsky, Nikolai Lugansky, Benjamin Grosvenor or Andrei Korobeinikov. Two time scholar of the Hungary Initiatives Foundation’s Graduate Scholarship (2017,2018) awarded to talented Hungarian individuals who have achieved outstanding

results in their field of study. She served as cello and chamber music tutor at Montclair State University’s Extension Division and she is also member at the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Department: Arts