Cellist Tamas Zetenyi plays Liszt at the Library of Congress
‘… Zetenyi is a sensitive musician, obviously deeply committed to Liszt’s chamber music and in tune with the composer’s darker moods. Zetenyi has a vibrato that he uses with infinite variety and that mirrors every shade of emotion. Indeed, at times he uses none and projects wispy sounds with eerie overtones.’
(Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post, 06/01/2011)
Tamás Zétényi
Tamás Zétényi is an active member of the Hungarian music scene, the cellist of the Classicus Quartet and an adjunct professor at the Széchenyi University Győr.
Highlights of the season 2020/21 will feature the first performance and recording of Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Viola. The Classicus Quartet will be performing a full Bartók cycle at the Béla Bartók Memorial House in Budapest. The complete transcription of Mozart’s Divertimentos for Basset Horn for three celli will be performed celebrating the 60th birthday of Balázs Arnóth.
Tamás Zétényi plays dozens of concerts a year both as a founding member of Classicus Ensemble, of Classicus Quartet and of Trio Passacaglia, but also with such ensembles as UMZE, ZAK Ensemble, THReNSeMBle, CentriFUGA or Rondino Ensemble, and has also participated in theatre productions of Krétakör and Alföldi Róbert.
The activities of the Classicus Quartet is centered around the concert series Well-tempered String Quartet, which is a series of concerts centered around the 12 different keys, performed at the Budapest Music Center. The 4 year long journey consists of more than 60 pieces, with a first performance at each concert. In the past four years Classicus Quartet has played several concerts in Hungary and abroad, including live radio broadcasts, a tour in Switzerland and concerts at the Liszt Academy.
Classicus Ensemble is a chamber music group led by Péter Tornyai, Zoltán Fejérvári and Tamás Zétényi. They performed their first concert in 2009 and since then they have played more 100 different programs with the ensemble, including high profile occasions such as a ‘Kurtág 90’ festival, concerts at the Liszt Academy, a tour in the USA, collaboration with the world famous jazz guitarist Gábor Gadó, and a festival featuring chamber music transcription of all Beethoven symphonies. With the Ensemble he has invited such guests as István Várdai, Emőke Baráth. The group was Artist-in Residence at Central European University between 2011 and 2017.
Tamás Zétényi also performs regularly as a soloist. He has played solo concerts in many countries of Europe and in the USA, including an all-Liszt recital in the Library of Congress, Washington DC. As a dedicated performer of new music he has collaborated with a number of composers, playing first performances of pieces by Balogh Máté, Dargay Marcell, members of the CentriFUGA group, and Sándor László. He considers Péter Tornyai’s 70 minutes long piece for solo cello and male choir, Dixit as his most important commission.
Tamás Zétényi has completed and submitted his doctoral thesis ‘The Late Chamber Music of Franz Liszt’ at the Liszt Academy, under the supervision of Lóránt Péteri.
A transcription of J. S. Bach’s BWV 997 Lute Suite by Marcell Dargay and Tamás Zétényi was published by EMB in 2021.
In 2010/11 he was Visiting Fellow at Bard College, where he organized chamber music activities and performed at concerts. As a member of the Kalmia String Quartet he made recordings with Navona and Albany, and performed at several concerts, including an appearance in Jordan Hall, Boston.
Tamás Zétényi was born in Budapest in 1985. He started playing the cello at the age of five. After winning the Starker Competition in 2004, he became a student of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He also studied at Universität der Künste, Berlin, and at Bard College, New York State, USA. After his studies he worked with István Varga to refine his cello playing. He has visited master classes of such cellists as Miklós Perényi, László Fenyő, Tamás Mérei, Heinrich Schiff, Irene Sharp, Guido Schiefen and Wolfgang Boettcher. During his years of education, Tamás has played in distinguished orchestras, including the Danube Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra. He has learned the most about music from Balázs Arnóth, György Kurtág and currently having lessons with Ferenc Rados coaching the Classicus Quartet.