Hungarian cellist Dr. Zoltán Csikós was born in 1987. He started playing cello at the age of nine in the city of Novi Sad at the local elementary music school. After completing basic music studies, he graduated from the Isidor Bajić Music High School. While completing his high school courses, he was accepted into the preparatory class for gifted young students at the Academy of Music in Novi Sad.
Zoltán started his undergraduate studies in 2007 at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, studying with the region’s acclaimed Hungarian cello professor Imre Kálmán. As a cello student, he participated in numerous competitions and master classes and won various awards in solo playing and as a member of a piano trio, string quartet, and chamber orchestra (1st prize in cello at the Festival of Music Schools of Serbia, 2nd prize at the National Competition of Cello in Belgrade in 2003, and prizes as a long-time member of a piano trio and string quartet).
In 2010 he won the Academy of Music’s Annual Concerto Competition and was selected to play the Rococo Variations by P. I. Tchaikovsky with the Academy Orchestra in the Novi Sad Concert Hall. During his studies, he attended master classes with Arto Noras, Louise Hopkins, Alexander Kniazev, Antonio Meneses, Stanislav Apolin, Xenia Jankovic, David Starkweather, Alexander Kobrin, Sergiu Schwartz, and Phoebe Carrai.
Zoltán finished his undergraduate studies in 2012 with the highest grades given for his final cello recital exam. He also holds a Master of Music degree from the Academy of Music in Novi Sad and an Artist Diploma from Columbus State University, where he was a student and graduate assistant in the studio of the world-renowned cellist Wendy Warner. In 2021 he obtained a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Cello Performance from the University of North Texas as a student of Nikola Ružević. Zoltán is also a winner of the 2018 University of North Texas Concerto Competition, where he was selected to perform as a soloist with the UNT Concert Orchestra. He enjoys both performing and teaching, and he served as a cello Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas from 2016 to 2019 and as a chamber music coach at the UNT Summer String Institute. Zoltán’s orchestral experience includes playing in orchestras such as the Plano Symphony, Irving Symphony, San Angelo Symphony, Orchestra of New Spain, Sinfonia da Camera, Camerata Academica, Lagrange Symphony Orchestra, and Columbus Symphony. He was also a member of the UNT Center Piano Trio, the recipient of the Hungarian American Coalition’s Dr. Elemér and Éva Kiss Scholarship, and he received the University of North Texas Outstanding Graduate String Student Award in 2019.
