Georges Cziffra was born in Budapest in 1921 and died
in Paris in 1994.

Born in dire poverty, he earned money as a child for his family by improvising on popular melodies at a local circus. In 1930 he took up serious study with Dohnányi at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and between 1933 and 1941 he gave numerous successful concerts in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Hungary. Conscription into the army led to his capture as a prisoner of war; and in 1950 he was again imprisoned, this time for his political beliefs. In 1956 he escaped with his wife and son to Vienna, where his debut recital the same year caused a furore. Further concerts in Paris and London confirmed his extraordinary virtuoso status, and in such works as Balakirev’s Islamey and Liszt’s Transcendental Studies and Spanish Rhapsody he found an ideal outlet for his scorching bravura. In 1966 he founded the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, in the Auvergne, and in 1969 inaugurated the piano competition in Versailles that bears his name.