Kristóf Baráti was born in Budapest, Hungary, but a large part of his childhood was spent in Venezuela. He began his violin studies at the age of five and already from the age of eight he made his first solo performances with the leading Venezuelan orchestras. At the age of eleven he was invited to give a recital in Montpellier for the Festival de Radio France.

He continued his studies in Budapest with Miklós Szenthelyi and Vilmos Tátrai at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. During this period he won the Lipizer Competition in Italy and got second prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. In 1997 his career took a new turn after winning third prize and the audience prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, being the youngest finalist. He went on to redefine his violin technique with Eduard Wulfson.

Kristóf Baráti performs in important concert halls around the world with major orchestras and conductors, such as Kurt Masur, Marek Janovski, Jiri Belohlavek, Yuri Bashmet, Yoel Levi, Andrew Manze, Zoltán Kocsis, Iván Fischer, Yuri Temirkanov and Eiji Oue. His chamber music partners have included Natalia Gutman, Gábor Boldoczki, Evgeniy Koroliov, Mario Brunello and Michel Portal. In 2009 and 2010 he recorded the first two Paganini concertos and Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin with Berlin Classics.

Kristóf Baráti has recently received several prizes such as the Elba Festival’s Best Performer, the Prima Prize for classical music in Hungary and the First Prize of the VI. International Paganini Violin Competition in Moscow.

Kristóf Baráti plays on the 1703 "Lady Harmsworth" made by Antonio Stradivarius, kindly offered by the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.