In 1996 Andras Keller, first violinist of the string quartet that bears his name, decided to make a complete recording of Bela Bartok's six string quartets - a musical challenge for every violinist and, for every Hungarian, an emotional one besides. "It was almost half a century [writes Wolfgang Sandner] since his teacher Sandor Vegh had done the same. Pushing the footstep metaphor just a bit further, one would have to say: the Keller Quartet have set their prints alongside those of the Vegh Quartet. Unsentimental, intelligently responsive to structure, multifaceted, almost a bit modernistically cool in the overall conception - an assessment that also implies praise for the teacher: Vegh's students do sound, not like Vegh, but like themselves.

This certainly applies to Andras Keller. Although, for a violinist, he took up his instrument relatively late, namely at the age of seven, by the age of twelve he had already won a prize at an international competition in Usti, in what is now the Czech Republic. He enrolled at the Budapest Academy of Music in 1974, studying with Denes Kovacs, Ferenc Rados and Gyorgy Kurtag (chamber music). In 1983, while still a student, he won the Hubay Violin Competition and participated in master classes with Sandor Vegh in Salzburg. After he obtained his performing diploma in 1984, his career developed along three parallel tracks: as an orchestra musician, soloist and chamber musician. He was leader first of the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra (1983-86) and then of the Budapest Festival Orchestra (until 1991). In 1987 he, the violinist Janos Pilz and two fellow students from the Budapest Academy - Zoltan Gal (viola) and Otto Kertesz (cello) - founded the Keller Quartet, winning both the Evian and the Borciani competitions in 1991. In the meantime Andras Keller has also made frequent solo appearances, both with leading Hungarian orchestras and with major international ensembles. Performing works written for him, he has played at numerous festivals of contemporary music as well - the Festival d'Automne, Lockenhaus, Wien Modern, Witten, Kihmo and Warsaw.

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