The Hungarian violinist Béla Báinfalvi was born in Budapest in 1954 and on completing his studies at the Liszt Academy joined the teaching staff. He spent three years, from 1979, as leader of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and was invited in 1982 to join the Bartók String Quartet. In 1985 he left the quartet in order to lead the Budapest Strings, a chamber orchestra with which he has made a number of tours. As a soloist, chamber music player and leader of a chamber orchestra, he has given over seven hundred concerts, appearing throughout Europe, in Japan and in America, with a number of recordings for various companies. He teaches at the Budapest Academy and in 1985 was awarded the Bartók-Pásztory Prize.