Attila NÉMETHY started playing the piano when he was four. His mother studied with Ernő Dohnányi and Béla Bartók. At the age of 12 he was admitted to the preparatory course of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. His first teacher there was Mrs Miklós Máthé, and later he studied with Lajos Hernádi and Pál Kadosa. At the same time he worked as a child actor in the Madách Theatre, and was the voice of the leading child role, Aladár, in the animation series, Mézga family. He played Wendauer in the 1969 film The Boys of Paul Street. He was awarded his degree as a pianist in 1977. He subsequently studied aesthetics with János Maróthy.
Némethy won second prize at the international piano competition in Athens in 1977 and finished first at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar in the same year. In 1978 he received several prizes at the Brussels Queen Elisabeth Competition. From 1979 he was a soloist of the National Philharmonia and in 1980 he began working for the music programmes of the Hungarian Radio.
Since 1986 he has been teaching the piano at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. He has conducted masterclasses at home and abroad and has often sat on the judging panel of competitions. He performed in almost every country in Europe and also appeared in Canada, China and Japan with acclaimed orchestras and artists. He participated in radio, television and CD-recordings. He has become a permanent contributor to programmes of the Bartók Radio as editor and presenter. In 2015 he received the Lajtha Award and in 2018 the Bilicsi Award.