Born in Budapest, Hungary, he began playing piano at the age of four. He studied piano and composition at the Bartók Conservatory, and later piano and chamber music at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Kornél Zemplèni, Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág, András Mihály, and Albert Simon. From 1980-81, he studied conducting with Karl Österreicher at the Music Academy in Vienna. He also participated in master classes with Jörg Demus.
He won the Special Prize of the Hungarian Radio’s Piano Competition, 3rd Prize of The International Liszt-Bartók Competition in Budapest, Hungary, and 1st Prize of the International Chamber-Music Competition in Bloomington, USA.
Since 1974, he has performed internationally as a soloist with orchestras such as the Dresdner Staatskapelle, Dresdner Philharminc Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Budapest Symphony, Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orch. Ljubjana etc., and with partners such as Eugen Jochum, Péter Eötvös, Iván and Àdám Fischer, Jörg Demus, Thomas Riebl, András Keller, Stefan Ruha, Miklós Perényi, Erich Höbarth, Thomas Zehetmair, András Schiff, The Bartók String Quartett, Pro Arte Quartett, Chicago Symphony Chamber Players, and many others.
Since 1985, he has formed a Piano-Duo with his wife Tünde Kurucz
He was a piano professor at the Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, and since 1990 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he currently resides.
Since his first visit to Japan in 1976, he has appeared almost every year as a pianist and leads master classes in this country (e.g., Toho Gakuen University, Showa University). Since 2001, he has been a guest professor at the University of Alcala de Henares, in Spain.
He was invited to the Int. Bartók-Seminar for master classes in 1986, where he participated for the following 15 years. He continued this work in 2006. He was one of the initiators for the establishment of the Auer Summer-Academy for Music in Veszprém, Hungary.
He published his own transcriptions at the Edition Simonffy (Bach, Johann Strauss, Strawinsky, Richard Strauss etc.)
He arranged the piano reduction of Péter Eötvös` Piano Concerto for Schott in 2006.
His recordings have appeared at Hungaroton, Denon, BMC, and Preiser Records.
From 2002-2012, he was chief conductor of the Budapest Chamber Symphony.