One of the most talented pianists of his generation, József Balog was born in 1979 in Budapest. Under the guidance of his father, he started learning the piano at the age of four. He studied for a piano teaching and chamber music diploma at the Liszt Ferenc Music University (Budapest) under Prof. Annamária Krause Bodoky, graduating in 2001. His graduate studies were under the direction of Prof. Jandó Jenő; . Along with the standard piano repertoire, he plays works by neglected composers (such as Burghardt, Bentzon, Rodrigo and Tansman) and he also plays jazz music and his own transcriptions. As a student, he took part in many music competitions, winning first prizes in several national competitions and also first prize at the Bartók-Liszt International Piano Competition (Budapest 2001), Grand Prix at the Aleksander Tansman Music Competition (Lodz 2002), second prize at the Brahms International Music Competition (Pörtschach 2004), the special ‘press’ prize for the best performance of Liszt’s Piano Sonata at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition (Utrecht 2005), first prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition (Pécs 2007), and second prize at the Carlo Soliva International Piano Competition (Casale Monferrato 2008). József Balog was given the Annie Fischer Award by the Hungarian Ministry for Culture in 2005. Since 2003 he has taught piano and singing at Ferenc Liszt Music University (Budapest).
