Hungarian born violist Máté Szűcs was principal viola in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from 2011 to 2018. Máté was seventeen when he switched from the violin to the viola and graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Royal Conservatory of Flanders in Antwerp and he obtained his diploma from the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth. He is a First Prize winner at the International Violin and Viola Competition in Liège in Belgium. As a chamber musician, Máté has worked with musicians such as Janine Jansen or Frank-Peter Zimmermann. In addition to performing solo with the Berlin Philharmonic, he has soloed with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders or the Bamberger Symphoniker and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, where he was as well principal viola. After teaching in Saarbrücken, the Karajan Academy, the Hanns Eisler University in Berlin and the Music Academy of Budapest, he is the Professor of Viola at the Geneva University of Music in Switzerland.