Budapest and Paris

After liberation by the Russians, the Mayor of Arad, who was himself an amateur violinist, arranged for a visa that allowed fourteen-year-old Tibor to travel to Budapest. There, he studied music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with Ede Zathureczky and was awarded the Remenyi Prize, given to the best violin student at the Academy.

In 1948, the Communists closed the Hungarian-Romanian border and refused to renew his passport. Tibor escaped to Paris using a falsified passport arranged for him by the Kahan-Frankl family, prominent members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Budapest who had “adopted” him. Accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris on a full scholarship, he studied with René Benedetti and won the Premier Prix in 1952, the Conservatoire’s highest award. While studying in Paris, his family was allowed to emigrate from Romania to Israel.