Born in Budapest, Gábor Takács-Nagy began studying the violin at the age of eight. As a student of the Franz Liszt Academy, he won First Prize in 1979 in the Jeno Hubay Violin Competition and later pursued studies with Nathan Milstein.
Born in Budapest, Gábor Takács-Nagy began studying the violin at the age of eight. As a student of the Franz Liszt Academy, he won First Prize in 1979 in the Jeno Hubay Violin Competition and later pursued studies with Nathan Milstein.
Born in Budapest, Gábor Takács-Nagy began studying the violin at the age of eight. As a student of the Franz Liszt Academy, he won First Prize in 1979 in the Jeno Hubay Violin Competition and later pursued studies with Nathan Milstein.
From 1975 to 1992, he was founding member and leader of the acclaimed Takács Quartet performing with legendary artists, Lord Menuhin, Sir Georg Solti, Isaac Stern and Mstislav Rostropovitch. In 1996 he founded the Takács Piano Trio and made world-premiere recordings of works of Hungarian composers Franz Liszt, Lászlo Lajtha and Sandor Veress. Gábor Takács-Nagy is considered one of today’s most authentic exponents of Hungarian music, and in particular, that of Béla Bartok. In March 2017 he was awarded the prestigious Béla Bartok-Ditta Pasztory Prize.
In 1998 he established the Mikrokosmos string quartet with compatriots Zoltan Tuska, Sandor Papp and Miklos Perényi. In 2002, following in a long-line of Hungarian musical tradition, Gábor Takács-Nagy turned to conducting. In 2006 he became the Music Director of the Weinberger Kammerorchestra and in August 2007, the Music Director of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. The VFCO performs every summer in the Verbier Festival and also in numerous European and Asian cities throughout the year. From 2010 until 2012 he was Music Director of the MAV Symphony Orchestra Budapest and recorded the world premiere of the “Bards of Wales” oratorio by Karl Jenkins. Since September 2011 he is Music Director of Manchester Camerata and in September 2012 was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In January 2013 he was nominated Principal Artistic Partner of the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
He is regularly invited to conduct the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestra Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Orchestra Filarmonica de Bologna, l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Toulon, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra , the Orchestra of Dijon-Bourgogne, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra amongst others.
Gábor Takács-Nagy is also a dedicated and highly sought-after chamber-music teacher. He is Professor of String Quartet at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva. In June 2012 he was awarded honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London.