Ildikó Szabó is a regular guest at prestigious festivals such as the Rheingau Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, OCM Prussia Cove, BBC at Hay, Verbier Festival, Piatigorsky Cello Festival, IBF Gran Canaria, and the Krzyżowa Music. She has also performed in recital and chamber music at the Mariinski-Theater, Elbphilharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Walt Disney Hall, as well as the Liszt Academy and the Palace of Arts Budapest. As a chamber musician, she has cooperated with artists such as Arnold Steinhardt, Ferenc Rados, Kirill Gerstein, Tabea Zimmermann, and Matthias Schorn.
With a particular passion for Hungarian and Transylvanian music – Ildikó Szabó has developed personal relationships with György Kurtág and Péter Eötvös. This is reflected in her discography, her solo album “Heritage” (2020), nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award features world premiere recordings of works by György Kurtág and Csaba Szabó. Her mentor Alfred Brendel described the recording as “substantial interpretations by a very special young cellist” and suggested she recorded the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven which was released in March 2023 with her long-time chamber music partner, pianist István Lajkó.
Born in a family of great musical traditions, at the age of 11, Ildikó Szabó was admitted at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where she studied with László Mező, while attending regular master classes with János Starker. In 2011, she moved to Berlin to study with Jens Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts, and in 2018 continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt” Weimar with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Ildikó Szabó is an Alumna of Kronberg Academy in Germany and a Laureate of the Gautier Capucon’s “Classe d’Excellence” in Paris. Since September 2023, she is Associate Professor at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar and the Julius Stern Institute-UDK, in Berlin.
Ildikó is a Larsen Strings artist and plays an Antonio Sgarbi cello loaned to her by the German Fund for Musical Instruments.
www.ildikoszabo.com
