Károly Schranz is a Hungarian

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist and founding second violinist of the

Takács Quartet The Takács Quartet is a string quartet founded in Budapest, Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States. History In 1975, four students at the Music Academy in Budapest, Gábor Takács-Nagy (first violin), Károly Schranz (seco ...

. During his forty-three year career with the quartet he received awards from the Hungarian Government of the Knight's Cross and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. As a member of the Takács he was awarded one Grammy and four nominations, several Gramophone Awards, as well as other awards of excellence.

Biography

Born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary, he began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving his first lessons from a

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

violinist neighbor. At fourteen he entered the Béla Bartók Secondary Music School in Budapest and upon graduation from that institution he entered the prestigious

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

. It was there in 1975 that he co-founded the

with classmates

Gábor Takács-Nagy Gábor Takács-Nagy (born 17 April 1956,''International Who's Who in Classical Music'' (25th edition). Routledge (London), p. 807 (2009) (). Budapest), is a Hungarian violinist and conductor. He began violin studies at age 8. He attended the Franz ...

(violin), Gábor Ormai (viola), and

András Fejér András Fejér (born 1955) is a Hungarian cellist. He is a member of the Takács Quartet, having founded it with three classmates at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest] in 1975. He was born into a musical family and became familiar w ...

(cello). Károly was the recipient of the Franz Liszt Prize in 1983. He currently lives in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

with his wife and three daughters, and is on the music faculty of the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

Evaluation

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

music critic Jeremy Eichler wrote of Károly: "...The second violinist, Karoly Schranz, is the musical heart of this quartet, and he often leans toward the center of the ensemble as he plays, urging the phrases forward from deep within the fray. He and the cellist, Andras Fejer, are the only two original members remaining, though their dark, rich Central European tone is still at the core of the quartet's sound."Takacs Quartet – Review – Classical Music – New York Times
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References

External links

Takács Quartet official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schranz, Karoly Hungarian classical violinists Male classical violinists Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni Musicians from Budapest University of Colorado Boulder faculty 1952 births Living people 21st-century classical violinists