Barnabás Kelemen

Photo of Barnabás Kelemen

Barnabás Kelemen

Professeur

Instruments:

Violin
Professor at Budapest’s Liszt Academy and the University of Cologne.
Winner of numerous international awards.
Member of the Kelemen Quartet and renowned violinist.

Violinist Barnabás Kelemen has conquered the most famous concert halls in the world with his virtuoso technique and dynamic, passionate playing style. Versatile and open-minded, he is an outstanding soloist and chamber musician, as well as an artistic director of festivals and a teacher at renowned institutions. In recent years he has also worked as a conductor.

Due to his exceptional sense of style and his comprehensive technical proficiency, Barnabás Kelemen navigates with confidence through the entire catalogue of music written for violin. His repertoire is thus extremely diverse and he performs Early Baroque, Classical, and Romantic works with just as much authenticity as twentieth-century pieces. He is additionally a devoted advocate of contemporary music, with world or Hungarian premieres of works by Kurtág, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubajdulina, Steve Reich, and Ryan Wigglesworth to his name.

He regularly performs at the world’s most prominent concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Royal Festival Hall, the Palais de Beaux Arts, Suntory Hall, and the Berliner Philharmonie. He is a frequent guest of such eminent ensembles as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Hannover’s NDR Radiophilharmonie, to name but a few.

Barnabás Kelemen has worked with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Jurowski, Marek Janowski, Michael Stern, Krzysztof Urbanski, Zoltán Kocsis, Péter Eötvös, and Iván Fischer. He is also an avid conductor himself – in recent seasons he has directed the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Ensemble, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonic orchestras of the Hungarian cities of Szombathely, Győr, and Pécs. On top of all this, he is a sensitive and experienced chamber musician who has played with artists of the calibre of Dezső Ránki, Steven Isserlis, MiklósPerényi, Alina Ibragimova, VildeFrang, José Gallardo, and Andreas Ottensamer.

It was Barnabás Kelemen who recorded all ofBartók’s works for violin in the series of albums produced under the aegis of Zoltán Kocsis, and many received international acclaim, especially his CD comprised of Sonatas for Violin and Piano Nos 1 and 2 (featuring Kocsis) and Sonata for Solo Violin, which won the 2013 Gramophone Award.

In 2001, his album of Liszt’s complete works for violin and piano with Gergely Bogányi was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque by the International Liszt Society, while in 2003, Diapason magazine paid tribute to Kelemen and Tamás Vásáry’s recording of Brahms’ Sonatas for Violin and Piano with its influential Diapason d’Or. So far, he has released a total of 20 albums – 17 solo and three with his quartet – as well as a double DVD of live performances of Mozart’s complete violin concertos.

His album – released in 2020 under the care of Alpha Records – featuring Sándor Veress’sString Trio and Béla Bartók’sPiano Quintet in C, wonit’s category at the BBC Music Magazine Awards.

Barnabás Kelemen has achieved outstanding results in prestigious contests, including first prizes at both the 1999 International Mozart Violin Competition in Salzburg and the 2002 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and third prize at Brussels’ 2001 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. His artistry has been recognized with the highest professional and state honours: he has been awarded Liszt, Bartók-Pásztory and Kossuth Prizes and Prima and Gramophone Awards, and is the holder of the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.

Barnabás Kelemen began studying the violin under ValériaBaranyai; as a student of Eszter Perényi, he graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music in 2001. He was enormously influenced by his later teachers, Isaac Stern, Ferenc Rados, and Zoltán Kocsis. He studied conducting from two giants of the Finnish tradition, Leif Segerstam and JormaPanula. He is currently a professor at two illustrious institutions: Budapest’s Liszt Academy and the University of Cologne.

Together with Katalin Kokas, he is the founder and artistic director of the Festival Academy Budapest Chamber Music Festival, which regularly features artists such as VildeFrang, Maxim Rysanov, ShlomoMintz, and Joshua Bell. From 2010 to 2018 he was the leader of the Kelemen Quartet which returned to the stage after three years of hiatus. Kelemen Quartet introduced two new member, violinist JonianIliasKadesha and cellist Vashti Hunter. The quartet’s premiere performance will be in May for the Bartók Spring Festival in Budapest.

Barnabás Kelemen performs on the “ex-Dénes Kovács” Guarneri del Gesú violin of 1742, generously loaned to him by the Hungarian State.

Read more

Masterclasses of Barnabás Kelemen

(9)

Photo of content Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Barnabás Kelemen and Gaspar Kelemen explore how to play with freedom while remaining in the confines of the rhythm.
Photo of content Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano by Maurice Ravel
Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano by Maurice Ravel
Barnabás Kelemen and Lena ter Schegget address bow strokes, articulation, and dynamics in this masterclass for the violin.
Photo of content Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Professor Barnabás Kelemen and his student Ekaterina Zeynetdinova work on bowing techniques, musical direction, and more.
Photo of content Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 by Johannes Brahms
Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 by Johannes Brahms
Barnabás Kelemen and Elizaveta Leonova work on dynamics, tempo, and more in this session for violin.
+
Sign up now and access to all Barnabás Kelemen's masterclasses, interviews and concerts
Sign up
Sign up
Level up your playing with some of the greatest musicians.

Free Trial

$0 0₩ $CA 0 £0 0€

/Month
  • Limited access to our masterclasses.
  • Multi angle videos available in HD on all your devices.
Start
20% 50% 20% 20% 20%

Yearly Subscription

$15.9

25.000₩
$CA 15.9
£15.9
15.9€

/Month (excl. VAT)

Instead of $19.8 50.000₩ $CA 19.8 £19.8 19.8€

Billed at$190.8 300.000₩ $CA 190.8 £190.8 190.8€ yearly

  • Unlimited access to all our masterclasses.
  • New videos available every month
  • Exclusive interviews with the world's greatest professors.
  • Sheet music annotated by our professors, and ready for download
  • Multi angle videos available in HD on all your devices.
Subscribe

Monthly Subscription

$19.8

50.000₩
$CA 19.8
£19.8
19.8€

/Month (excl. VAT)
  • Unlimited access to all our masterclasses.
  • New videos available every month
  • Exclusive interviews with the world's greatest professors.
  • Sheet music annotated by our professors, and ready for download
  • Multi angle videos available in HD on all your devices.
Subscribe
Limited access to our masterclasses.
Unlimited access to all our masterclasses.
New videos available every month
Exclusive interviews with the world's greatest professors.
Sheet music annotated by our professors, and ready for download
Multi angle videos available in HD on all you devices.