The Hungarian cellist Csaba Onczay was born in Budapest in 1946. Onczay was a pupil of Antal Friss at the Budapest Academy, where he won the grand prize on graduation in 1970. He was subsequently awarded the Liszt Prize, then won the 1973 Pablo Casals Competition in Budapest, followed by first prize in the Rio de Janeiro Villa-Lobos International Competition in 1976.

He went on to distinguish himself in Andre Navarra’s masterclass at Siena and continued his studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.Csaba Onczay has enjoyed a busy career throughout Europe and in the United States of America.

He also offers mastercourses in Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Japan and in Hungary as well as occasionally taking up conducting assignments with emerging orchestras at home and abroad.

Csaba Onczay is considered an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music by Akutagawa, Gubaidulina, Lutosławski, Penderecki, Dutilleux, Landowski, Lendvay, Szokolay and also of concertos composed for him by Kocsár, Landowski and Decsényi.

For Naxos, Csaba Onczay has recorded the complete Bach Cello Suites and the Beethoven Cello/Piano sonatas with compatriot Jenő Jandó. He has also played on the Naxos recordings of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet and, most notably, Beethoven’s Archduke/Ghost Trios (with Jenő Jandó and Takako Nishizaki).

Csaba Onczay plays a cello by Matteo Gofriller bought for him by the Hungarian government.