András Schiff was born in Budapest, Hungary, and started piano lessons at age five with Elisabeth Vadász. He continued musical studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy with Professor Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados, and in London with George Malcolm. He has given recitals and special cycles of the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Bartók. Between 2004 and 2009 he performed complete cycles of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in 20 cities throughout the United States and Europe, a project recorded live in Zurich's Tonhalle and released in eight volumes for ECM New Series.

In the 2011–12 season András Schiff serves as one of Carnegie Hall's Perspectives artists; in this capacity he is focusing on Bartók and that composer's legacy in their native Hungary. He also performs in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Princeton, Vancouver, Toronto, Berkeley, Boulder (Colorado), and Napa (California).

In 1999 András Schiff created the chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca. He also works every year with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. From 1989 until 1998 he was artistic director of Musiktage Mondsee, a chamber music festival near Salzburg, and in 1995 he founded the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte with Heinz Holliger in Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland. In 1998 Mr. Schiff started a similar series, Hommage to Palladio, at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. From 2004 to 2007 he was artist-in-residence of the Kunstfest Weimar, and in the 2007–08 season he was the Berlin Philharmonic's pianist-in-residence.

Mr. Schiff's discography includes recordings for London/Decca (1981–94), Teldec (1994–97), and, since 1997, ECM New Series. He has received several international recording awards, including two Grammy Awards. An all-Schumann disc was released in the fall of 2011.

In 2006 András Schiff and the music publisher G Henle began collaborating on editions of music by Mozart and Bach; to date, both volumes of Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier have been edited in the Henle original text with fingerings by Mr. Schiff.

Mr. Schiff's numerous prizes include Zwickau's Schumann Prize, Italy's Premio della critica musicale Franco Abbiati, Klavier-Festival Ruhr Prize, Wigmore Hall Medal, and Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. He has been named an honorary member of the Beethoven House in Bonn; honorary professor of the music schools in Budapest, Detmold, and Munich; and special supernumerary fellow of Balliol College (Oxford, U.K.). He is married to violinist Yuuko Shiokawa.