Ligeti was born in Transylvania. His family were Hungarian Jews. His father and his brother died in the Holocaust. After World War II he studied music in Budapest at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He was a music teacher at the Franz Liszt Academy from 1950 to 1956. He also composed music at that time. Much of his music then was influenced by Hungarian folk music. He was also influenced by the music of Béla Bartók, another Hungarian composer. 