Szabolcs Zempléni was born in 1981. Already at the age of 17, he won first prize and the Ministerial Special Prize at the Concertino Prague International Horn Competition, and in the following years he won several international competitions (Markneukirchen 2000, Békés 2000, Brno 2001).

In 2005 he was the first Hungarian horn player to win 1st prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. As a soloist he has given numerous concerts in Europe, America, Africa and Asia.
He has played with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

Under the baton of Iván Fischer, Yakov Kreizberg, Jonathan Nott, Daniel Raiskin and Michael Sanderling, he has performed in prestigious concert halls such as the Gasteig in Munich, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Auditorium in Rome.

His chamber music partners include András Keller, Dénes Várjon, Péter Nagy, Christoph Eschenbach, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Elena Bashkirova.

Szabolcs Zempléni has been a visiting professor at Trinity Music College London and Tokyo Music College, and since 2010 he has been professor of horn at the Trossingen Music College. His first solo album (Colours of the French Horn) was released in 2011 by Oehms Classics.