Born in Cluj (Romania) in 1952, Péter Csaba was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra of Budapest (Hungary) between 2012 and 2019, and has since acted as a permanent guest conductor. Previously, he was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Besançon Symphony Orchestra.
He also founded two chamber orchestras: Les Solistes de Lyon and Virtuosi di Kuhmo in Finland. Between 1993 and 2002, Maestro Csaba was Artistic Director of the “Musica Vitae” Chamber Orchestra of Sweden. He was also Artistic Director of the Lapland Music Festival and created the Euro-Music Festival for young talents, broadcast by Swedish television and Eurovision. Given his contribution to the musical life of Sweden and the art of music worldwide, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy in 2001.
He has toured all over the world as a violinist and conductor, and has worked with the symphony orchestras of Berlin, Birmingham, Singapore, Warsaw, the Prague Radio, the Romanian Radio, the Hungarian Radio, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the National de Lyon, the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic, the Geidai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kioi Sinfonietta of Tokyo, the Warsaw Symphony, the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitana de Lisboa and the Helsinki Philharmonic, among many others.
He has collaborated with artists such as P. Fournier, Z. Kocsis, T. Berganza, K. Zimerman, N. Gutman, O. Kagan, M. Pressler, D. Bashkirov, J. Galway, as well as with the composers A. Schnittke, H. Dutilleux, K. Penderecki, G. Kurtág, S. Gubaidulina and X. Montsalvatge.
Between 2002 and 2024 he was Artistic Director of the Santander Music and Academy Encounter and, previously, held the same position at the Kuhmo Music Festival in Finland and the Ravel Festival in France.
He has recorded music as a conductor and violinist with a wide repertoire, and his interpretations of Shostakovich and Bartok have received great praise, being described as one of the best recordings of their works. When it went on sale, his CD dedicated to Sibelius was chosen as the best recording of the year in the United States. He has also given concerts and made recordings with many of the most acclaimed artists and composers of our time.
As a pedagogue, he was part of the Orchestra Chair of the National Conservatory of Music of Lyon from 1996 to 2018.
In 2017 he received the Knight’s Insignia of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor and the Decoration of Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland; and, in 2021 and 2023 respectively, the Medals of Honor from the Albéniz Foundation and the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.