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Michael Barta's Homepage

Hello, I am a music professor, specializing in violin, viola and chamber music. I was born in Hungary, went to the F.Liszt Academy in Budapest and later studied with Arthur Grumiaux. I won 2-nd prize at the Joseph Szigeti International Violin Competition in 1973 as well as the Grand Prix of the Ysaye Society in Belgium. In 1974 I was a finalist at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. 1975-80 I toured the world as first violinist of the Kodaly String Quartet. I fled communism in 1980 and was granted asylum in the US. 1981-85 I was professor of violin at Central Michigan University and Concertmaster of the Saginaw and Midland Symphonies. I was appointed as Associate Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University in 1985 and promoted to Professor in 1996. I am also Assistant Concertmaster of the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. In 1987 I was granted US citizenship. Since coming to the US I have performed nationally at Alice Tully Hall and twice in Carnegie Hall in New York, also in Detroit, Philadelphia, Kansas City,etc. and internationally in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Malta, Spain and Latvia. I am teaching each summer at the International Music Course of the Pyrenees in northern Spain, where you can find about 150 students from all over the world. I am also on the jury of an international chamber music competition there. In Carbondale I am a co-founder of the Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society,which presents a 4-concert subscription series each season and awards generous scholarships to talented string students at SIU. Scholarship recipients,faculty and guest artists (frequently international artists) perform together in the concerts. My hobbies include travel,chess,biking. If any of this is of interest to you, please drop me a line.

The School where I teach

SIU-C School of Music

Email: bartamisi@hotmail.com