Tamás Kocsis

Tamas is a native of Budapest, Hungary. At the age of nine he was accepted at the Liszt Academy of Music where he studied violin with Dénes Kovács. In 1989 he moved to the United States to work with Josef Gingold on a full scholarship at Indiana University and later with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York.

He also received a full scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival. During these years he also studied with Nelli Shkolnikova, Isaac Stern, Rostislav Dubinsky and János Starker.

Before his appointment as Leader of the Ulster Orchestra in 2010, Tamás held Concertmaster positions with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Savannah Symphony and the Orlando Philharmonic. He also had Concertmaster positions at the summer festivals of Breckenridge and Crested Butte in Colorado.

He has been invited as Guest Concertmaster with the orchestras of Charleston, Tampa, Melbourne and Vancouver as well as being the Concertmaster of Opera Tampa under Maestro Anton Coppola. Tamás was also with the Teocalli Trio for a number of years. He recorded Brahms’ Violin Sonatas and Piano Quartets with pianist Fabio Bidini for the EPR Encore label and made a number of recordings for Hungarian Radio.

He has also been honoured by receiving an Award from the European Council in 1994 and won the Artists’ International Auditions in New York City in 1995. In 2006 he was knighted in Budapest.

He is an avid fan of the Montréal Canadiens ice hockey team and loves to go out and play a round of golf whenever he has the chance. Married to cellist Alexandra Desbruslais, in July Tamás became a father when she had baby Gusztáv.