Balint Vázsonyi (7 March 1936 – 17 January 2003) was a Hungarian-born naturalized American pianist, international recitalist, soloist with leading orchestras, and political journalist. He made performance history in playing chronological cycles of all 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven over two days in New York, Boston, and London. During the last six years of his life, he became a commentator in Washington, D.C., on the state of American politics.
Influenced by economists Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek, Vazsonyi developed a political philosophy based on what he saw as the essential principles of the Constitution and Anglo-American legal tradition. In his book "America's 30 Years War: Who Is Winning?", he outlined "the Four Points of the Compass:" the rule of law, equality before the law (individual rights), the security of property, and a common American identity. He argued that these "Four Points" are slowly being replaced by socialism in the form of government-mandated quotas and group-rights, redistribution of property, and multiculturalism.
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Though embraced by conservatives, Vazsonyi rejected the label: "There is nothing conservative about the principles of the American founding. It was then and it remains now the most forward-looking political philosophy ever devised."
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Taught master classes in piano at Harvard, Yale and the New England Conservatory of Music.
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Son Nicholas is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina. He directed Vazsonyi's "Klassix-13" TV series.
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Presented with the Officers' Cross of the Order of the Republic of Hungary in 2001.
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Opposed the idea of a Constitutional amendment permitting naturalized (as opposed to natural born) citizens to serve as U.S. president.
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Op-ed columnist for the Washington Times and nationally syndicated through Scripps Howard News Service.
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Fled Soviet-occupied Hungary with his mother and brother in 1956 by crossing on foot through the mountains into Austria.
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Director of the Virginia-based Center for the American Founding
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Concert pianist. At age 12, he made his debut at the Liszt Academy of Music.
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Became a U.S. citizen in 1964.
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Anti-Gulf War protests at Indiana University in 1991 prompted Vazsonyi -- a music professor there at the time -- to form a group called the Stand Up for America Alliance. Local Republicans drafted him to run for mayor of Bloomington, Indiana. He lost the election.
$100,000