Zoltán Onczay - Soloncello (2024)

Zoltán Onczay considers it his mission to promote Hungarian and contemporary music at home and abroad, and he has premiered many works written especially for him. Among the many awards he has received, the most prestigious are the Yamaha Award from the European Yamaha Music Foundation, the Martinu Award from the Semmering Summer Academy, as well as the Wiener-Classic and Kodály Awards. In 2022, he received the Artisjus Performing Arts Award in Hungary.
Zoltán Onczay graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music Budapest studying under László Mező, cellist of the renowned Bartók Quartet, and received his solo diploma from the Universität der Künste in Berlin in 2008, as a Hindemith scholar, under Wolfgang Boettcher. His professors in international masterclasses were János Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Tobias Kühne.
He was principal cellist in Claudio Abbado's Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and toured major cities in America and Europe, performing with artists such as Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Kent Nagano, Anne Sophie Mutter, Jurij Bashmet and Yo-Yo Ma. As a member of the Budapest Sextett (1999-2003), he performed in Hungary, Germany and Japan. At the invitation of Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi, he has played several times at festivals in Japan.
From 2004 to 2015, Zoltán Onczay lived in Germany, where he was a member of the Mannheim Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of the Tower Chamber Concert series. Since 2015 he has been the principal cellist of MÁV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest. As a founding member of the Fejes Academy, and co-ordinator at the Ádám György Academy, Zoltán Onczay is a teacher and supporter of young talents. He regularly holds masterclasses and frequently performs as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, Asia and the USA.