Dóra Kokas

Born in 1992, Dóra KOKAS started to learn the cello at the early age of four from her mother. In 2006 she was admitted to the Liszt Academy’s Special School for Exceptional Young Talents, where she studied under the direction of László Mező. From 2007 she continued her studies in the preparatory class of the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, and later at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where she is currently a first‑year MA student of Miklós Perényi. Besides her academic studies, she had the opportunity of participating in the master classes of such world-renowned artists as János Starker, Steven Isserlis, Johanthan Cohen, Susan Moses, Csaba Onczay and Ferenc Rados. In addition to her numerous triumphs at youth competitions in Hungary, she won the first prize at the Gorizia International Cello Competition in 2005, second prize at the Liezen International Cello Competition in 2004 and bronze medal in Dolny Kubin in 2006; in 2014 she got into the finals of the Pablo Casals International Violoncello Competition organized in Budapest and received two special awards.  As a founding member of the Kelemen Quartet, she has won a plethora of prizes at the most prestigious international string quartet competitions and took to the stage in the world’s top-ranking concert venues, partnering with musicians like Joshua Bell, José Gallardo, Nicholas Altstaedt, or Péter Frankl. She made her solo debut with a performance of Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto at the Gala Concert of the Young Talents International Music Festival in 2006. She has performed Haydn’s C Major Concerto and the Double Concerto by Brahms with her sister, the violinist Katalin Kokas on several occasions. She has played as a soloist with the Budapest String Orchestra, the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra and the MÁV Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 she was awarded the Gundel Art Prize.