Péter Balatoni was born in Nyíregyháza in 1977. Among his mentors are renowned artists such as Ágnes Fesztóry, Katalin Schweitzer, Alex Szilasi, Gábor Csalog, and Rita Wagner. He graduated with distinction from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest in 2000. Subsequently, he obtained a postgraduate diploma from the Basel Music Academy in Switzerland. In 1990 and 1992, he won special awards with his chamber partners at the National Four-Hand Piano Competition. In 1992, he received the Special Prize at the National Piano Competition. In 1997, he won the prize for the best interpretation of Brahms at the National Schubert-Brahms Piano Competition. In 1999, he received the jury’s special prize at the National Chopin Piano Competition. In June 2000, he made his debut in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy with Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

Since then, this exceptional talent, has performed almost exclusively abroad with tremendous success worldwide. Over the past decade, he has given around five hundred solo recitals in Europe, America, and Asia. In Hungary, he has been seen and heard at the Liszt Academy, the Old Academy of Music, the Pesti Vigadó, the Matthias Church, the Hungarian Radio and Television.

Following his opening concert at the 2008 International Liszt Festival in Grottammare, critics hailed him as the new star of classical music.

In the Liszt Year, under the patronage of Miklós Réthelyi, the Minister of National Resources, his concert series titled “Liszt 200 World Wide With Balatoni” further enhanced Hungary’s and Hungarian music’s reputation with great success from Budapest to New York, from Mexico City to Turin. On October 1st, on the occasion of World Music Day, prior to a three-month concert tour in the United States, he performed at Vörösmarty Square at the request of Duna Television, which was covered by all public service television channels. The television recording of his concert in Subotica (Szabadka) in December 2012 has been broadcast multiple times and is also available on YouTube. In 2013, he was awarded the Master and Disciple Prize for his work, alongside artists such as György Cserhalmi, Dorottya Udvaros, Ilona Tokody, Kolos Kováts, and Ádám Fellegi, in a ceremonial gala program.

In addition to his undeniable knowledge and expertise, his exceptional virtues include his charisma, deeply felt and suggestive piano playing, and his enchanting stage presence, which consistently receives enthusiastic acclaim from the audience, often leading to standing ovations, while the profession, international press, and critics reward him with superlatives and enthusiastic praise. He often uses his artistry in charitable service, giving numerous benefit concerts both at home and abroad. He has performed for the homeless on multiple occasions. He is associated with a charity concert series throughout Italy, organized under the framework of the United Nations World Food Programme, aimed at helping underprivileged children in the developing world, which has been covered by Italian TV news. Several of his concerts have been under the patronage of the current and former Italian presidents.

In 2023, on June 8th, Balatoni continued his charitable concert series by visiting Borodyanka, near Kiev in war-torn Ukraine, where he inaugurated a new piano for the local music school. The instrument, a gift from the Oltalom Charitable Association, replaced the one destroyed during bombings. The audience was deeply moved by his performance, rewarding him with a standing ovation and prolonged applause as he momentarily alleviated the horrors of war through his music. On October 18th, Balatoni gave a humanitarian concert at the Roman Catholic St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kyiv. The concert was an enormous success. The national Ukrainian TV station STB aired a detailed segment about the event, praising the artist’s noble gesture, humanity, and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. In the interview, the pianist commemorated the fallen Ukrainian soldiers, civilians, and wounded, spoke admiringly of the perseverance and bravery of the Ukrainian military and civilian population, and unequivocally condemned the Russian aggression on behalf of all sober-minded Hungarians, expressing sympathy for the Ukrainian people. Colonel Zhuravlov of the Ukrainian armed forces attended the concert and presented Balatoni with a military certificate of gratitude for supporting Ukraine. The final stop of the 2023 Ukraine charity concert tour was the ceremonial hall of the Transcarpathian Regional Philharmonic in Uzhhorod, where, together with pianist József Örmény, they dazzled classical music aficionados with their virtuoso performance. The organizers donated all proceeds from the concert to the Ukrainian defense forces. The pianist is eagerly awaited for return performances at various venues across Ukraine over the course of the next year.

Péter Balatoni inaugurated the concert hall of the Institut für bildnerisches Denken in Germany and has since been a frequent guest. Gerd Jansen, the director of the institute, recommends the Hungarian artist as follows: “Péter Balatoni is an exceptional stage talent. In his public performances, he astoundingly captivates the audience with his delivery and performance style. His dramatic temperament brings out the musical substance, which he conveys touchingly to the hearts of listeners. It appears as if the music is born in the moment of his playing, as a unique and captivating experience, with no hint that the composition may be a hundred years old. In the past two hundred years of musical masterpieces, Péter Balatoni is able to create harmony amidst the complexities of the present.”