György Cziffra was a Hungarian-French classical and jazz pianist and composer born on November 5, 1921, in Budapest. As a child, he improvised at a local circus and entered the Franz Liszt Academy in 1932. Following service in World War II, Cziffra performed in Budapest bars and toured with a European jazz band from 1947 to 1950. After an unsuccessful escape attempt in 1950, he served three years of hard labor. In 1956, Cziffra escaped to Vienna and subsequently debuted in Paris and London, where he performed the Franz Liszt pieces “Piano Concerto No. 1” and “Hungarian Fantasy”. He became a French citizen in 1968. His repertoire included recordings of works by Chopin and Schumann, alongside arrangements such as “Flight of the Bumblebee” and “The Blue Danube”. Cziffra founded the Festival de musique de La Chaise-Dieu in 1966 and the Cziffra Foundation in 1977. He died on January 15, 1994, in Longpont-sur-Orge.
