Flautist János Bálint was born in Hungary. He graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in
Budapest in 1984, complementing his education with masterclasses from András Adorján. He has won
numerous awards at international competitions, such as those held in Ancona and Leipzig. Between 1981 and 1991, he served as the First Flute of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; in 1998, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Auer Summer Academy; and in 1999, he founded the Doppler Music Institute in Hungary, of which he was the President.
Since 2000, he has been the First Flautist of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1986, he became a featured soloist with the Cziffra Foundation, which helped launch his international career. Since then, he has performed at some of the most important festivals in Europe and appeared in some of the most prestigious venues in cities like London, Paris, Bratislava, Rome, Assisi, Moscow, Helsinki, Salzburg and Budapest. He has also frequently toured Israel and the United States. His partners include Ruggiero Ricci, Gervase de Peyer, Pierre Pierlot, Miklós Perényi, Alain Marion, Maxence Larrieu, Georges Cziffra, Tamás Vásáry, Zoltán Kocsis, András Adorján, Ransom Wilson and Jean-Claude Gérard, while he has collaborated with various ensembles and orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, the Radio Orchestra of Bratislava, the European Soloists (Luxembourg), the Kodály and Bartók String Quartets, and the most important Hungarian symphony and chamber orchestras.
János regularly makes radio and TV recordings, including live performances. He has released 30 CD recordings with labels such as Naxos, Hungaroton and Capriccio. His recordings of transcriptions of works by Paganini and Felix Mendelssohn with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and conductor Piergiorgio Morandi and by Franck, Schubert and Dvořák with pianist Zoltán Kocsis, both with Hungaroton, have enjoyed tremendous success.
János regularly serves as a jury member at several international fl ute and chamber music competitions in countries such as Hungary, Serbia, the USA, Italy, Poland, Austria, Romania and Japan. He currently teaches at the Accademia Flautistica in Imola and the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, and gives regular masterclasses worldwide. His students have received more than 20 prizes in international competitions. János has performed all the main literature that includes the fl ute as a solo instrument, which encompasses over 1,000 pieces, ranging from Baroque to contemporary, and has made several transcriptions and arrangements of works written for other instruments. Several composers have written and dedicated works to him, and his interpretations of these compositions have received numerous awards.
