Шандор Яворкай

Taught by his father in Győr from the age of three, Sándor Jávorkai was playing in public at five. The Liszt Academy in Budapest and Ferenc Halász came next, then Vienna and the class of Michael Frischenschlager, from which he graduated with distinction in 2004 before starting doctoral work in musicology in the same city; along the way he took masterclasses with Isaac Stern, Tibor Varga, Vladimir Spivakov, György Pauk and Ferenc Rados. Vratsa heard him on 16 June 2000, as soloist with the city's symphony orchestra, in a concert he shared with Ilija Marinkovic. He has since played as soloist and as concertmaster with orchestras across Europe, among them the Dresden Philharmonic and the Budapest Philharmonic, and works constantly with his brother, the cellist Ádám Jávorkai: the two took the Kodály Prize together in 2003, were named Artists of the Year by Jeunesse and Bank Austria in 2009, and have recorded the Brahms Double Concerto and the Bartók and Kodály duos.