Attila Falvay – Violin

Ferenc Bangó – Violin

Zoltán Tuska – Viola

György Éder – Violoncello

The Quartet was founded in 1966 by four students of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

In 1968, the “Sebestyén Quartet,” (named after the quartet’s first violinist) won the first prize at the International Leo Weiner String Quartet Competition in Budapest. By 1971 the Quartet had established an international reputation, and in that year changed its name to the “Kodály Quartet” in honour of the outstanding twentieth-century Hungarian composer.

The Quartet has set as its main objective the authentic interpretation of the works of Zoltan Kodaly, and gives tremendous importance to the values and traditions that Kodaly conceived as essential in musical culture. Of course, it is not only Kodaly’s works that are frequently performed by the Kodály Quartet: all the major Hungarian composers (Bartók, Dohnányi, Kurtág, Ligeti, Durkó) are represented in its programme, in addition to the standard classical repertoire.

The Kodaly Quartet has regularly performed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, India, in nearly all European countries and throughout the Far East, including China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. They have given concerts in Australia and New Zealand several times.

The Quartet has participated in festivals around the world.  To name only the most important venues and festivals: Bath, Aldborough, Oaxaca, Estoril, Prague, Bagdad, Guanajuato, Ljubljana, Istanbul, Athens, the Korsholm Music Festival in Sweden, the Musica Mundi Festival in Belgium, the Carinthia Summer and the Bruckner Festival in Austria, the Luberon Festival in Provence, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Budapest Spring Festival.

They have worked with many great musicians including Bruno Canino, Milan Turkovic, Miklós Perényi, Zoltán Kocsis, Michel Portal, Dimitry Ashkenazy, Michel Béroff, Jeremy Menuhin, Tamás Vásáry, Jenö Jandó   Dimitris Sgouros, Francois Leleux , Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

The Kodaly Quartet has recorded some 70 CDs, including the complete cycles by Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert. In 1994, the English magazine CD Classics awarded the first prize in the Chamber Ensemble category to the Kodaly Quartet for its recordings of Haydn.  In 2007, the BBC nominated its recording of Mendelssohn and Bruch octets for the “Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year Award”

In 2022, the highest prestige cultural award – the Kossuth Prize – was presented to the Kodály Quartet by the Hungarian Government.