László Dés was born in Budapest in 1954. He attended the Zoltán Kodály School of Voice and Music and later studied piano. He continued his music education at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, where he studied clarinet (1971-1973), and then in saxophone in the jazz department of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy (1973-1976). He participated in many music groups throughout the '70s both as a founder and member, including Dimenzió I, the Supergroup, Dimenzió II, the Budapest Big Band, Trio Stendhal, Jazz+Az and the Dés Septet. Together with his various ensembles, he appeared at numerous jazz festivals, including in Újvidék (Novi Sad), Wrocław, the Swedish city of Umeå, Pozsony (Bratislva), New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Innsbruck, the Finnish town of Kajaani, Paris and Berlin. He has received numerous awards and recognitions over the course of his career, including the eMeRTon Award (1988) the Ferenc Liszt Awar (1991), the Film Critics' Award for best film music of the year (1994, for his work on Sose halunk meg [“We Never Die”] and Anna filmje [“Anna's Film”]), the Golden Giraffe Award presented by the Association of Hungarian Record Companies (1994, 1999, 2000, 2001), the Artisjus Jenő Huszka Award (1994, 1995), the Theatre Critics' Award for best musical piece (1996, for The Jungle Book), the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (1996), the Pro Budapest award, the Hungarian Jazz Award (2003) and the Kossuth Prize (2007), and was also named an Artist of Merit in 2003.