Débora Halász
Praised by critics for her début recordings as “a superb virtuoso with a prodigious technique”, the Brazilian Débora Halász is among the leading South American pianists of her generation. Winner of the most important competitions in her native country, she made her début with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. Four years later the Critics’ Prize (APCA) named her as the best soloist of the year for her interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto.
She studied in São Paulo at the Magdalena Tagliaferro Academy, following the Cortot school of playing, and later with Beatriz Balzi and Myrian Dauelsberg. At the same time she graduated in Law at the São Paulo University (USP). In 1989 she went with a DAAD scholarship to Germany and since then has been invited to many European, South and North American Music Festivals and Concert Series. After her studies in Cologne, she was invited by BIS to record the complete piano works of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Her CDs have been enthusiastically acclaimed by the international press as “the most successful account of Villa-Lobos on record” (Fanfare). She also recorded for BIS works by Ginastera, Shostakovich and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. With her husband she established in 1993 the Duo Halász, guitar and piano, winning further critical acclaim. She has also partnered musicians such as Lavard Skou Larsen, Patrick Gallois, Sebastian Hess and Ingolf Turban. Débora Halász teaches at the Nuremberg State Musikhochschule and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.