Miklós Perényi is one of the great cellists of his generation, with a distinctive sound matched by extraordinary musicality. Born in Hungary, he began cello lessons at the age of five with Miklós Zsámboki. He was nine when he gave his first concert in Budapest and went on to study with Enrico Mainardi in Rome and with Ede Banda in Budapest. In 1963 he was a prize-winner at the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Budapest. Casals invited him to his master classes in Puerto Rico in 1965 and 1966, and then to the Marlboro Festival.
In 1974, Miklós Perényi joined the faculty at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he is a professor. He was honoured with the Kossuth Prize in 1980 and the Bartók-Pásztory Prize in 1987. Perényi has appeared in the world’s major musical centres, performing regularly around Europe, Japan, China and America. His festival engagements have included Edinburgh, Lucerne, Prague, Salzburg, Vienna, Warsaw, Berlin and the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France. With a repertoire ranging from the 17th century to the present, he appears as a soloist with orchestra, in solo and duo recitals and in chamber ensembles.
Besides performing and teaching, he also devotes his energies to composing works for solo cello and for instrumental ensembles. Among his closest colleagues is the pianist András Schiff, with whom he has appeared at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Edinburgh Festival and the Ruhr Festival. Recently, they played at Cologne’s Philharmonie, the Schwetzingen Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the 92nd Street in New York. Highlights of the 2011/12 season include orchestra and chamber concerts at Tonhalle Zurich, Konzerthaus Vienna, in Salzburg, Munich, Basel and others. Perényi performed, among other works, the Cello Concerto by Peter Eötvös, which he premiered in the previous season with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Miklós Perényi’s numerous recordings include releases for Hungaroton, EMI, Sony Classical, Teldec, Decca, col legno and Erato. In 2009 a live recording of a recital with Dénes Várjon of works by Bach, Britten and Brahms was released on Wigmore Hall’s own label. In 2011, his new solo recording with works of Britten, Bach and Ligeti was released by ECM.