Kabos was born Ilona Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1893[1] (some sources give her year of birth as 1894, 1898 or 1902).
[2] She toured widely, giving a number of premiere performances of works by composers including Kodály, Weiner, Béla Bartók, Luigi Dallapiccola, Roy Harris, Carlos Chávez and Mátyás Seiber.
[2] In November 1942, Kabos and Kentner gave the world premiere of Bartók's Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra in London.
[6] Kabos' better-known students include: Susan Alexander-Max, David Bollard,[7] Robert Cuckson,[8] Monte Hill Davis, Norma Fisher,[3][9] Peter Frankl,[3] Joan Havill,[10] Niel Immelman, William Corbett Jones, Joseph Kalichstein,[3][11] David Oei, John Ogdon,[3] Denver Oldham, Kun-Woo Paik, Alberto Portugheis, Staffan Scheja,[12] Roberto Szidon and Alan Weiss[citation needed].
Other students included: Paul Burke,[13] Nigel Coxe,[14] David-Michael Dunbar,[15] Marilyn Engle,[16] Meira Farkas, Jonathan Miles Freeman,[17] Otto Freudenthal,[18] Nancy Burton Garrett,[19] Derek Han,[20] Robin Harrison,[21] Emanuel Krasovsky,[22] Risto Lauriala,[23] Dana Muller,[24] Thalia Myers,[25] Rafael Minaskanian, Joel Sachs,[26] Jeffrey Siegel,[27] Sérgio Varella-Cid,[28] Patrick J. Mullins, and Veda Zuponcic.
She was also the musical advisor for a number of films: Murder in the Cathedral (1951), The Fake (1953), The Diamond (1954), Jet Storm (1959), and The Hands of Orlac (1960).