Ferenc Szecsődi was born in 1954 in Budapest. His teachers were István Bodonyi at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music and Mihály Szűcs at the Academy of Music. Simultaneously with receiving his diploma, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Liszt Academy.

He began his teaching career in 1977 at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Szeged, and since then he has had countless students performing and teaching throughout Hungary and abroad. He has been a habilitated university professor since 2000. His international solo career began in 1984 when he was awarded the Cziffra Foundation Grand Prize. Since then, he has appeared on concert stages in many of Europe’s major cities, from Paris to Vienna, Bologna to Madrid, Prague to Zurich, and Kiev. Many composers, including Zsolt Durkó, Pál Rózsa, Miklós Kocsár and Lajos Huszár, have dedicated concertos to him. In 1992 he was voted Best Performer of the Year, and the following year he received the Liszt Prize. He was awarded the Weiner Prize in 1996 in recognition of his pedagogical work. Since 2005 he has been President of the Jenő Hubay Society. In 2009 he was awarded the title of Artist of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. Since 2012 he has been a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. In 2015 he was awarded the Klebersberg Kuno Prize. In 2017 he was elected president of the Hungarian Instrumentalists’ Alliance, and in 2020 he became Artist of Excellence of the Republic of Hungary.

Of his recordings, a significant proportion of them are of the classic Hungarian violin repertoire. The album The Great Hungarian Violin School has been well received by both the recording community and critics. The 13-CD set of works for violin and piano by Jenő Hubay, published by Hungaroton Classic, is a unique undertaking, and has been highly acclaimed by the national and international press.