Biography

Hungarian cellist Nella Balog was awarded the Junior Prima Prize in the field of music in 2024, supported by MVM Zrt., and in the same year won a successful audition with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra. She completed her bachelor’s studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München in the class of Prof. Wen-Sinn Yang, and is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest as a student of István Varga, with graduation expected in the summer semester of 2026.

Born in Budapest in 2002, Nella began her musical studies at the age of seven in Érd. She continued at the Szent István Király Music School in Zugló as a student of Zsuzsanna Antók, and from the age of fourteen studied with István Varga at the Szent István Király Secondary School of Music. She has been a prizewinner in national competitions both as a soloist and as a chamber musician.

Her artistic career is marked by numerous prestigious competition achievements: the Feldtmann Kulturell Special Prize at the Dotzauer International Cello Competition in Dresden (2022), First Prize at the King’s Peak International Music Competition (2022), as well as First Prizes and special prizes at the David Popper International Cello Competition in Várpalota (2019) and the Jan Vychytil International Cello Competition (2019). She also won First Prize at the Talents for Europe International Music Competition (2018) and received Third Prize at the Heran International Cello Competition.

In the 2021/22 academic year, she was awarded the MOL “Klasszis” Scholarship, and between 2021 and 2024 she received support through the Deutschlandstipendium. In the 2025/26 academic year, she is a scholarship recipient of the Friends of the Liszt Academy Foundation.

Nella regularly participates in international masterclasses, including the Cello Akademie Rutesheim, where she made her solo debut with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra at the 2019 gala concert. At the age of seventeen, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend a one-month Summer String Academy at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in the United States.

As a soloist, she has performed with ensembles such as the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Bad Reichenhaller Philharmoniker, the Saint Stephen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra. In Hungary, she has appeared in prestigious venues including the Great Hall and Solti Hall of the Liszt Academy, Müpa Budapest, the Pesti Vigadó, the Budapest Music Center, the Hungarian House of Music and the Marble Hall of Hungarian Radio. Her concert activity spans numerous European countries, and she has also performed in the United States and South Africa; in the latter, she toured with the LGT Young Soloists chamber orchestra.

During her studies, she has taken part in masterclasses with artists such as Wolfgang Boettcher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Gábor Takács-Nagy, László Fenyő, Csaba Onczay, Jacob Shaw and Mario Brunello. Her chamber music development has been shaped by artists including Márta Gulyás, András Keller, and Raphael Merlin.