One of music's most revered pianists, Sir Andras Schiff has a long history with SF Performances audiences. Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle observed, "The clarity and precision with which Schiff pulls this off are as remarkable as the wealth of color and expression that he brings out in performance."
Sir Andras Schiff was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1953 and started piano lessons at the age of five with Elisabeth Vadasz. Subsequently he continued his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy with Professor Pal Kadosa, Gyorgy Kurtag and Ferenc Rados, and later in London with George Malcolm.
Since childhood he has enjoyed playing chamber music and from 1989-98 was Artistic Director of the internationally highly praised "Musiktage Mondsee" chamber music festival near Salzburg. In 1995, together with Heinz Holliger, he founded the "Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte" in Koartause Ittingen, Switzerland. In 1998 Sir Andras started a similar series, entitled "Hommage to Palladio" at the Teatro Olimpico in Vizenza. He has been Pianist in Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, a Perspective Artist at Carnegie Hall, and Pianist in Residence of the Kunstfest Weimar.
Sir Andras has been awarded numerous international prizes. In 2006 he became an Honorary Member of the Beethoven House in Bonn in recognition of his interpretations of Beethoven's works; in 2008 he was awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal in appreciation of 30 years of music-making at Wigmore Hall; in 2009 he was made a Special Supernumerary Fellow of Balliol College (Oxford, UK); in 2011 he received the Schumann Prize, the Golden Mozart-Medaille by the International Stiftung Mozarteum, the Order pour le merite for Sciences and Arts, the Grosse Verdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bunderepublik Deutschland, and was made a Member of the Honour of Vienna Konzerthaus; he was given the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal; in July 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Leeds.