The Katona Twins, Peter and Zoltán Katona, are among Europe's leading young artists, having won numerous prizes as soloists and a duo. The twins were winners of the 1998 Concert Artists Guild Competition and recipients of top competition prizes including First Prize at the most prestigious guitar duo competition in Montelimar, France, and First Prize at the international guitar competition in Bubenreuth, Germany. In addition, they were winners of the Young Concert Artist Trust Auditions in London. Other honors include the Cultural Prize from the city of Kassel, Germany, the S. T. Johnson Foundation Prize, and the Laura Ashley Prize.In 2004 they were awarded, with  the prestigiousBorletti-Buitoni prize, the first guitarist in the trust's history.

The Katona Twins have performed extensively throughout Europe, including performances at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Philharmonie in Cologne, and the Purcell Room of the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Forbidden City in Beijing.In Hungary and Germany they are frequently invited to record for television and radio broadcasts. Recent performance highlights include their debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, a return engagement at London's Wigmore Hall, a performance at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, DC, and appearances at the Fort Worth, Austin, and Connecticut Classical Guitar Societies. They also performed on a live broadcast on BBC Radio, playing Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto Madrigal with the BBC Radio Orchestra.

Upcoming highlights include Spivey Hall in Atlanta, a return to San Francisco for the Omni Foundation Concert Series, a two-week residency for the Quad City Visiting Artist Series, and the Florida International Music Festival. Internationally, the Katonas will perform throughout Europe with engagements at the Esztergom Festival in Hungary, the Caroso Festival in Italy, the Cambridge Summer Music Festival in England, the Schloss Elmau Festival in Germany, and will participate in an Irish Music Network tour.

The Katona Twins have recorded works by Piazzolla, Granados, de Falla, and Mozart in Budapest for the Channel Classics label. In the summer of 1999 they released their second Channel CD recording, which features the music of Scarlatti and Handel, and in this year, Channel released their recording of Rodrigo's Concierto Madrigal with the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra.

Born in Hungary, the Katona brothers studied individually and as a duo with Ede Roth at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, with Wolfgang Lendle at the Academy of Music in Kassel, and with Michael Teuchert at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt am Main. In 1995 the twins entered the Royal Academy of Music in London to study with Michael Lewin and Tim Walker; they also participated in master classes with Julian Bream and John Williams. They graduated with the Academy's highest award.

"the classical world's best known guitar duo"

The Daily Telegraph19 March 2005

“Making music live and breatheFrom the moment Zoltán and Peter Katona walked on stage it was clear that interaction between them is an important part of the musical experience of watching and hearing the twins perform.They make the music live and breathe by dividing it into emotional and thematic blocs which they often punctuate by an exchange of glances. Their arrangement of the music reinforces this interaction. The effect is unique.” 

 The Royal Gazette, Bermuda, June 11, 2005

 „The Twins recital erupted with as dynamic an opening as anyone could wish for. The pair transfixed the audience with a glorious demonstration of the guitar’s art. Rarely have I heard such dynamism coupled with incisive musical articulation; an overture to whet the most sated of appetites. …This was Bach played on the guitar in monumental fashion. …The fabulous textures and variety of tones created by the Twins soon became a seductive, melodic unity.  The Katona Twins, Peter and Zoltan Katona are two musicians moving at full tilt and their recordings and performances are essential listening for followers of the contemporary classical guitar scene.”                                                      

Classical Guitar Magazine, November 2004

“A beautifully played disc of very different arrangements of Piazzolla’s music....in the hands of Peter and Zoltán Katona it proves a vibrant triptych, the vigorous outer movements encasing a warm-hearted Andante. …The redistribution of the bandoneon to a second guitar part works very neatly and the reduction of the accompaniment to a string quintet gives the music — dynamic and lyrical as in the Tango Suite — a chamber music intimacy.The same is true of the other pieces…..cleaner lines, slightly more pace, more refined in tonal palette yet still possessing the original’s combination of elegance and earthiness. A rare achievement.”