Guitarist Zsófia Boros is noted for her distinctively subtle and graceful style. She has recorded several albums for the ECM label. Boros is of Hungarian background but was born in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, on April 22, 1980. She studied the guitar at the Bratislava Conservatory in Slovakia, where her teacher was Josef Zsapka. Boros went on for further studies in Budapest and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, eventually taking up residence in the latter city. She benefited from scholarship awards given by the Herbert von Karajan Centre in Vienna and the Thyll Foundation in Switzerland. Boros rounded out her education at the Francisco Tárrega Guitar Academy in Pordenone, Italy. First prizes at the North London Music Festival and Italy's Concorso Internationale Val Tidone, Paganini Competition (Parma), and Premio Enrico Mercatali (Gorizia) gave her valuable exposure. In 2008, Boros made her debut recording on the Preiser label with the album Musicbox; from the beginning, she favored a diverse repertory, including works by Leo Brouwer, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Francisco Tárrega, and Isaías Savio, among many others. Boros has appeared at various international venues on solo tours. She has worked collaboratively with cellist Anja Lechner, violinist Arabella Steinbacher, and bassoonist Benedikt Dinkhauser. She has also performed in dance concerts. Boros programs various kinds of contemporary music and has been the recipient of works dedicated to her by Muthspiel, Tonū Kõrvits, and Mathias Duplessy. She has often been in demand at festivals, at jazz-oriented as well as classical events. Boros' international appeal was boosted when she was signed to the ECM label in 2012, where her catalog includes jazz as well as classical releases. She released her label debut there, En otra parte, in 2013. That album featured a mixture of Latin American, North American, and European music. Boros followed that up on ECM with Local Objects in 2016 and with the French- and Argentine-oriented El Último Aliento in 2023. ~ James Manheim, Rovi