Jörg Demus. Photo © Ch. Brandstätter publisher, A-Wien, for AEIOU

                With Alfred Cortot                 With S. Richter und P. Badura-Skoda              With Artur Rubinstein                  With Elisabeth Schwarzkopf        With Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli       With Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Jörg Demus was born on December 2nd, 1928 in St.. Pölten, Austria. His mother was a concert violinist, his father, the well-known art historian, Otto Demus.

At the early age of eleven, he entered the Vienna State Academy of Music. He had his concert debut in the Brahms Hall of the Vienna Musikverein in 1942, (where he was also able to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of his musical career in March 2013).

In 1950, he performed in London and Zurich. In 1951, followed his first tour of South America. In 1953, his performance at the Salle Gaveau in Paris was a huge sensation. He was presented with the coveted "Premio Busoni“ of the International Piano Competition in Bozen in 1956.

Since then, Jörg Demus has performed in practically all important music centres of both Euope and America and is a celebrated guest at international festivals. Among others, he worked together with the conductors, Josef Krips, Andre Cluytens, and Herbert van Karajan as well as the singers Elly Ameling, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Peter Schreier and Dietrich Fischer-Diskau. In 1986, he received the Robert-Schuman-Prize from the town of Zwickau, in the year 2000 the Austrian Cross of Honour 1^st. Class for Science and Art. In 2006, he was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour. Many of his recordings have been awarded international prizes. As a great collector of historical grand pianos, he has also produced records, demonstrating these instruments. He regularly gives Masterclasses in Austria and Japan.

In recent years, collaboration with the young French cellist, Guillaume Effler culminated in wonderful concerts in Salzburg and at the Goetheaneum in Dornach. Together with the 91-year-old conductor, Sir Neville Marriner, Jörg Demus had enormous concert  success in Shanghai in December 2015. At the moment, concert tours and invitations to give master classes still lead Jörg Demus to constantly criss-cross Europe and Asia. In Switzerland, too, his celebrated concerts (e.g. Basler Stadtcasino and the Schaffhausener Meisterkonzerten) demonstrate his ability to inspire not only the musical elite, but also simple music lovers, including those attending the first classical concert of their lives. In Salzkammergut, Jörg Demus has a museum – the "Museo Cristoforo“ which displays an impressive collection of historical keyboard instruments. For decades, summer courses for pianists, other instrumentalist and singers have been held there.

Jörg Demus is outstanding in being able to combine faithfulness to the original with his own personal interpretation, full of introverted concentration, tense, and of highly sensitive expression. Very few musicians are able to achieve this synthesis.

1943 debut in the Brahms Hall of the Friends of Music Society in Vienna

1945 matriculation examination at the Music Academy of Vienna

1947 Honorary Award at the first Austrian piano competition after the war

1953 celebrated debut in Paris

1977 awarded the Beethoven Ring of Beethoven Society Vienna

1978 award of the Mozart Medal of the Vienna Mozart Society

1981 appointed an honorary doctorate

1986 Amherst Schumann prize of the city of Zwickau

2000 Austrian cross of Honour for Science and Art 1^st. class

2006 appointment as Knight of the French Legion of Honour