Bálint Bakfark (his name is variously spelled as Bachfarrt, Backvart, Bekwark, and occasionally his first name is rendered as Valentin; 1507 – 1576) was a Hungarian composer and lutenist of the Renaissance. He was enormously influential as a lutenist in his time, and renowned as a virtuoso on the instrument.

He was born in Brasov (Brassó), Transylvania (nowadays in Romania). An orphan, he was brought up by the Greff family, and was educated in Buda at the court of John Zápolya. Bakfark remained there until 1540, though he possibly traveled to Italy once during this time.

Sometime in the 1540s he traveled to Paris, but, finding the position of lutenist to the king filled, he left for Jagiellon Poland in 1549, where he was employed as a court lutenist by Sigismund Augustus II. From then until 1566 he traveled extensively around Europe, with his renown increasing, but remained faithful to his employer in spite of numerous efforts by other monarchs to win him away; the riches bestowed on him by Sigismund may have affected his decision to remain attached to the court in Vilnius (Wilno).