István Kassai graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Pál Kadosa) in 1982. In 1984 he pursued a second diploma at the Conservatoire Européen de Musique de Paris (Yvonne Lefébure), also undertaking several master courses, including one led by György Cziffra. During his career, Kassai has won several first prizes in competitions such as the 1972 International Piano Competition for Young Artists (Usti nad Labem, CSSR), the 1979 Hungarian Radio Piano Competition, and the 1982 Paris International Debussy Piano Competition. Moreover, Kassai’s artistic talent has been acknowledged by such prestigious awards as the Artisjus Prize (1976), Chevillion- Bonnaud Prize of the Fondation de France (1986), Hungarian Radio Nívó Prize (1990), ‘Ferenc Liszt’ Prize (2001) and the Leó Weiner Memorial Prize (2010). He has been a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts since 2013. Kassai has made recordings for Marco Polo, Hungaroton and Naxos, including the complete piano works of Bloch, Erkel, Hubay, Mosonyi, Weiner and Sándor Balassa. He has published numerous articles and studies on music and edited many volumes of sheet music.