András Keller named Professor of Violin at the Guildhall School

Written by Laurie Niles
Published: November 12, 2015 at 6:54 PM [UTC]

The London-based Guildhall School of Music & Drama has appointed Hungarian violinist András Keller as Professor of Violin, to begin teaching in January 2016.

Keller joins a sizeable string department at the Guildhall School, which has more than 900 students from nearly 60 countries in its higher education programs. Additionally, the school has nearly 2,500 students under the age of 18 enrolled in their Junior Guildhall and the Centre for Young Musicians programs.

Keller was head of the Chamber Music Department at his alma mater, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, from 2012-2015. Founder of the Keller Quartet, Keller also is director and conductor of Concerto Budapest. Keller began playing the violin at age 7 and studied at the Liszt Academy with Dénes Kovács, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados. Later, he studied with Sándor Végh in Salzburg.

"I'm extremely pleased to join Guildhall, where I will do my best to build up a great violin class," Keller said in a press release. "In the past few years, I've met several exceptional young artists from Guildhall, and besides their great technical ability, I find all of them have great musical sense, commitment, interest, and understanding. So I said to myself, this could be 'my school'!"

Keller's early studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music led to many collaborations with composer György Kurtág, whose works he has been premiering and performing worldwide since 1978. The recipient of the Premio Franco Abbiati, Liszt Prize, and Bartók-Pásztory Prize, Keller was named an Artist of Merit of Hungary and was also nominated for the United Kingdom’s Royal Philharmonic Society Award. He founded the Keller String Quartet in 1987 and was also the founder and artistic director of the International Sándor Végh String Quartet Competition. In 2007, he was appointed as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Concerto Budapest, formerly known as the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra. Under his leadership, Concerto Budapest has earned a reputation as one of the most respected Hungarian touring orchestras, annually presenting over sixty concerts in Budapest, in addition to concerts and festival appearances in China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. He is also a prolific recording artist with his recordings being awarded the Caecilia Prix (BE), Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Edison Award (NL), Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros (FR), MIDEM Classical Award (FR), and Record Academy Award (JP).

Keller teaches annually at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and is a regular guest of Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove.

Here is a short excerpt, played by the Keller Quartet:

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