Curriculum Vitae

Zsófi Kamilla Persányi
Curriculum Vitae

Zsófi Persányi (1999*) is a Hungarian pianist and composer. She studied piano and composition at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. Her teachers were Søren Rastogi, Péter Nagy, Péter Tornyai, Márta Gulyás, Rita Wagner, and Gábor Csalog. She is currently a student of Dénes Várjon and Fülöp Ránki.

She was the recipient of the Zoltan Kocsis Award in 2025, she was the scholarship holder of the New National Excellence Program in 2022, and in 2019 she won Third Prize at the International Béla Bartók Piano Competition, received a Special Prize at the Île-de-France International Piano Competition, and earned Second Prize at the National Composition Competition. She was awarded the Zoltán Kocsis Prize in 2025.

Alongside the classical repertoire, she has a strong interest in the relationship between visual arts and music. A central focus of her artistic work is the performance and presentation of repertoire written from around 1900 to the present day, as well as the interaction between Hungarian folk music and contemporary music, and the creation of interdisciplinary, unconventional, cross-genre collaborations and concert formats.

Selected projects include Nagy fának nagy árnyéka – Big tree, big shadow (2023), a concert with mezzo-soprano Anna Molnár exploring folk songs in a modern context. The program was built around Hungarian folk songs selected from the Kallós Archive, alongside Béla Bartók’s Improvisations, Op. 20 for piano, Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III for solo voice and Folk Songs for voice and chamber ensemble (performed in Persányi’s own voice–piano arrangement), as well as open-form improvisations based on the chosen folk songs. Further projects include “Structure and Entropy” I (2024) and II (2025), a two-part piano recital series featuring works by J. S. Bach, Richard Strauss, Palestrina, Louis Couperin, Alban Berg, and Arnold Schoenberg, and her own compositions.

Studies

2025-                                     Franz Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, piano MA
                                                  teachers: Dénes Várjon, Fülöp Ránki, János Palojtay, László Borbély

2023-2025                          Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, piano MA
                                                  teachers: Søren Rastogi, Henrik Brendstrup, Martin Kvist Hansen                   

2019-2022                          Franz Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, composition BA
                                                  teacher: Péter Tornyai

2020-21                                HMDK Stuttgart, composition Erasmus
                                                  teacher: Marco Stroppa

2018-2021                          Franz Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, piano BA
                                                  teachers: Péter Nagy, Márta Gulyás, Rita Wagner, Gábor Csalog, György Vashegyi

Masterclasses

2024                             International Arnold Schönberg Masterclass
                                                    teachers: Hardy Rittner, Henk Guittart

Colluvio Chamber Music Academy and Tour
teachers: Claus-Christian Schuster, Olivera Milic, Natasha Sarcevic

2023                                   Arias Nunes Aula de Cámara
teachers: Claudio Martinez Mehner, András Kemenes,
13th International Masterclass Katowice
teachers: Anna Malikova, Valentina Igoshina, Anna Górecka

2021                                   Virtuoso e Belcanto Festival Lucca
teachers: Boris Berman, Wei-Yi Yang, Till Fellner, Adrian Brendel, Claudio Bohorquez, Yejin Gil, Péter Nagy

2020                                   Early Music Days Vác
teacher: György Vashegyi

2019                                   Virtuoso e Belcanto Festival Lucca
teachers: Ian Jones, Bruno Giuranna, Yejin Gil, Riccardo Cecchetti, Paul Cortese, Péter Nagy

Competition results and awards

2025                                       Zoltán Kocsis Award
Cziffra Festival Innovative Musical Project Award

2022                                       New National Excellence Program

2019                                       3rd prize, International Bela Bartok Competition Graz
Young Talent Award, Ile-de-France Piano Competition

2017                                       2nd prize, National Composition Competition

2014                                       2nd prize, Bartok Piano Competition for Young Pianists

Concerts, festivals, collaborations

2025
7th of Secember                Csöndzsák-concerts, solo piano evening, Bach, Berg, Beethoven
22nd of November          Tin Soldier in the Labyrinth, Budapest Music Center Library, Kurtag: Games 5
18th of November           Editio Musica Budapest 75, Hungarian House of Music
16th of November           Les carnaval des animaux, Liszt Academy Solti Hall
15th of November           Tin Soldier in the Labyrinth, FUGA, Kurtag: Games 5th
7th of November              Mozart 270 – Kurtág 100/1. Old Music Academy Budapest
19th of October                 Transfiguration of the Maiden, with Fatima Szalay folk singer and Noémi Gizella Nagy contemporary dancer
5th of October                    Structure and Entropy II – Liebestod solo piano evening, works by J. S. Bach, R.                                                                                                     Strauss, Palestrina, L. Couperin, A. Berg and A. Schönberg, own compositions, at University of Debrecen Liszt Hall (30th of sept.), and Nador Hall Budapest
9th of May                           Astromusic/Solstice, László Sándor’s author’s evening in FUGA
6th of May                            -Wie die Spektralfarben dem Sonnenlicht- SCHÖNBERG – SCRIABIN im dialog mit Kokoschka, Kandinsky und Oppenheimer Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna

2024

1st of December               Structure and Entropy I – Bach, Schönberg and own pieces, FUGA Budapest

22nd of September         Aarhus Kammermusik Festival, Rising Stars, Musikhuset Aarhus, Lille Sal

8th of September             Musikhuset Aarhus, Classical Mornings, Musikhuset Aarhus Foyer

3rd of September             What is it like? Hungarian contemporary music w/ Anna Molnar at Szabó Ervin Library

4-13th of August                     COLLUVIO tour, Fauré Quintet no. 2 op. 120 Gut Hornegg, Vila Vilpolze Imago Sloveniae Festival, Ljubljana City Museum Múzeum, Musiktage Feldafing near Munich, Pressbaum ’’Freunde der Klavierkunst’’, Vienna Schuberts Geburtshaus, Budapest Austrian Cultural Forum, Belgrade Italian Cultural Institute

26th of April                       Fremtidens Stjerner, Aarhus Musikforening, Lille Sal Musikhuset Aarhus

23rd of April                       Soloist Competition Final, Symphonic hall, Musikhuset Aarhus

7th of April                          RAMA Festival Aarhus

2023
1st of December               Song recital w/ Lykke Appelon, Lille Sal, Musikhuset Aarhus

13-14th of October          OPUS Festival 2023

21th of January                       modern and contemporary music over folk songs Budapest Music Center Library w/ Anna Molnar mezzosoprano, Bartok, Berio, and            improvisations

2022
6th of May                            Composition BA diploma concert at Solti Hall of Liszt Academy

2021

13th of November                   Great Hall of Liszt Academy, Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos w/ Peter Nagy and Zuglo Philharmonic Orchestra

13th of May                         Piano BA recital at Solti Hall of Liszt Academy, Bach, Liszt, Webern

2020

18th of December                   XX-XXIst century music for two pianos, hungarian premier of B. A. Zimmermann’s Monologe w/ Andras Gelleri, University of Debrecen, Liszt Hall

20th of December                   ’Contrasts’ series of Liszt Academy, Old Academy of Music

2019

4th of May                           ’Beethoven Budán’ Festival