Join us for an exceptional evening of music as prize-winning cellist Pál Banda performs alongside Dr Martin Ennis, Life Fellow and Director of Music at Girton, on the piano. The programme will include works by J. S. Bach, Gabriel Fauré, Franz Schubert and David Popper.
All Girtonians are warmly invited, and guests are very welcome. As places are limited, bookings will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions about the event, please contact alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk. 
Pál Banda was born into a musical family in Budapest, where he studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with his father, Ede Banda, as well as György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados. A British Council scholarship took him to Prussia Cove where he studied with Ralph Kirshbaum. In 1982 Pál received a Commendation at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition, and the following year he won First Prize at the Popper Competition (Budapest).
In 1983 Pál was invited by Sándor Végh to become Principal Cello of the Camerata Academica (Salzburg), and the following year he became a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Over the years Pál has been a member of several important chamber ensembles including the Fitzwilliam Quartet, the Katin Piano Trio, the Allegri String Quartet and the English Piano Trio. He has also appeared as guest cellist with the Kodály, Maggini and Takács quartets. In 2016 he set up a series of charity concerts where he plays Bach’s cello suites in British churches in need of restoration.
Pál has taught at the Purcell School for over 25 years, and since 2018 has also been a member of staff of the Royal College of Music Junior Department. He has given masterclasses in the USA, Greece, Singapore, France, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Hungary and England. Since 2008 he has acted as external examiner for recitals at the University of Cambridge; he also adjudicates regularly at Trinity College of Music and the Scottish Academy of Music.
Pál plays on a Grancino cello that was once owned by the Esterházy family.
Some press reviews:
“...in the texturally detailed, inexorably unfolding slow variations – with some exceptionally lovely playing from cellist Pal Banda” (The Independent)
“Pal Banda... sumptuously long-legged of tone” (Sunday Independent)