Dezso d'Antalffy (born Dezső Antalffy-Zsiross;[notes 1] 24 July 1885 – 29 April 1945), was a Hungarian organist and composer.

[1] Dezso d'Antalffy was born into a musical family in Nagybecskerek, Banat, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, (present-day Zrenjanin, Serbia).

At the height of his career in 1917, he was the chief organist at St. Stephan's Basilica in Budapest (playing the largest organ in the country, built by József Angster[notes 3] in 1905.

Although Reger used liturgical genres such as the chorale and fugue, Bossi primarily composed concert pieces and D'Antalffy did the latter as well.

Bossi's impact on d'Antalffy as a teacher became tangible in 1911, when he wrote his two-volume Organ Tutor (a detailed, versatile course book in Hungarian, focusing on the pupil's technical development with a variety of exercises).

[2] He met his daughter and returned to Budapest, where he accepted a teaching position at the Academy of Music after a three-and-a-half-year absence.

D'Antalffy gave concerts in other towns, toured the United States in December 1924 to perform The Miracle and accepted lesser positions as a conductor and organist.

His stay in the U.S. was lengthened by an invitation to teach from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and shortly afterwards his Academy of Music contract expired.

D'Antalffy taught freshmen composition, counterpoint, music-reading, transposition and orchestration from 1927 to 1929 at the seminary's new sacred-music school, which existed until 1973.

D'Antalffy returned to Hungary, giving concerts in and outside Budapest, and was one of the first to play the newly built Angster organ in Szeged's Votive Church.

At the end of 1931, d'Antalffy returned to the U.S. and Rothafel commissioned him to compose an oratorio for the December 27, 1932 opening of Radio City Music Hall.

The first worldwide broadcast by Radio City was a success, and d'Antalffy worked for the theatre as a staff composer and organist[notes 9] for ten years.

[10] In 1936 he orchestrated Bach's Concerto for Two Violins for the New York Philharmonic, and the orchestra (directed by John Barbirolli) made d’Antalffy an honorary member in 1938.

This artist again confirmed his long recognised virtuosity by his performance of works by Bach, Schumann and others, in a well-rounded program, whose technical and interpretative excellence once more brought him the tumultuous plaudits of a crowded house."

It is easy to understand the large size of the audience who desired to attend when two such popular artists as Josef Lhevinne and D. D'Antalffy were the joint recitalists.

Mr. D'Antalffy opened the program with consummate artistry giving admirable interpretation of Handel's Organ Concerto in A major."