József Eötvös was born in 1962 in Pécs, Hungary. He studied at the University of Music F. Liszt Weimar guitar and composition. Between 1985-1988 he became acclaimed after having won several international competitions; and he gave concerts in many European and Asian countries. He was the first to perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations in his own transcription for solo guitar. The transcription has been hailed by international critics as transcription of the century. The resulting recording was awarded the Best Classical Music CD of the Year in Japan in 1998. Later, his transcriptions of F. Chopin’s works and J. Brahms’ Hungarian Dances were also released on CD. In 2002, his transcription of J. S. Bach’s The Art of Fugue also received the highest international critical acclaim. He was the first guitar soloist to perform several works by Béla Bartók, including the Romanian Folk Dances and Allegro Barbaro. His own compositions have been written primarily for solo guitar, guitar duo and guitar ensemble. In addition to the repertoire of the instrument and his own transcriptions, he devotes special attention to the promotion of twentieth century and contemporary Hungarian music. Upon his invitation, Máté Hollós and Iván Madarász composed concertos, which are at the same time the first guitar concertos written by a Hungarian composer.