Born on 28 May 1923 in Dicsöszenmárton (Transylvania), György Ligeti attended secondary school in Cluj, where he also studied composition at the conservatory with Ferenc Farkas from 1941-1943. During the Second World War he was sent to a forced labor brigade under the Horthy regime (most of the rest of his family was deported and murdered in concentration camps). After the war, from 1945 to 1949, he returned to his composition studies, working with Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he also taught harmony and counterpoint between 1950 and 1956. After the suppression of the Hungarian revolution by the Soviet army in 1956, Ligeti fled to Vienna and then moved to Cologne, where he met composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. In Cologne, he worked at the Westdeuscher Rundfunk electronic music studio (1957-1959), getting to know other composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, and Mauricio Kagel. In 1959, he settled in Vienna, and was granted Austrian citizenship in 1967.

During the 1960s, Ligeti participated each year in the Darmstadt Summer Courses (1959-1972) and taught in Stockholm as a visiting professor (1961-1971). He was awarded a fellowship by the DAAD in Berlin for the year 1969-1970, and was a composer-in-residence at Stanford University in 1972. From 1973 to 1989, he taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg. Most of his life thereafter was spent in Vienna and Hambourg. Ligeti was awarded many distinctions over his career, including the Berliner Kunstpreis, the Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and the Composition Prize of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco.

During his early years in Hungary, Ligeti’s compositions mostly show the influence of Bartók and Kodály. One hears a new style emerging in the orchestral works Apparitions (1958-1959) and Atmosphères (1961), characterized by dense polyphony (or micro-polyphony), and static formal development. Major works from this time include Requiem (1963-1965), Lux aeterna (1966), Continuum (1968), String quartet n°2 (1968), and his Kammerkonzert (1969-1970).

Over the course of the 1970s, his polyphonic writing became more melodic and transparent, as can be heard in Melodien (1971) as well as in his opera Le Grand Macabre (1974-1977/1996). Many works from this time also display an emerging desire to escape equal temperament, as in Ramifications (1968-1969).

During the 1980s, Ligeti developed a compositional technique that featured complex polyrhythms, influenced both by 14^th century polyphonic music and by various ethnic music traditions: Trio pour violon, horn, and piano (1982), Etudes pour piano (1985-1995), Concerto pour piano (1985-1988), Concerto pour violon (1990-1992), Nonsense Madrigals (1988-1993), and the Sonate pour alto solo (1991-1994).

In 1997, Ligeti composed a second version of Grand Macabre, which premiered in Salzburg in July 1997. After a concerto for horn and ensemble, Hamburg Concerto, and a last cycle of songs Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel for mezzo-soprano and percussion ensemble (2000), Book 3 of Piano Études, in 2001, was the last work he composed.