Tag Archives: conduct me

Elastic Chirping / Hajlékony ciripelés

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One more day of rehearsals, then it is time for our concert with Ensemble Ulysses at the beautiful Royaumont. Talented young musicians from all over the world, and four composers from three countries make for a nice experience. Last year I have visited Royaumont Abbaye and Foundation for only one day, to hear and see the conducting masterclass of Peter Eötvös with pieces by Kurtág and Boulez. Now I have the pleasure to spend a week here with a busy rehearsal schedule focusing on new music. Check out the program here:
http://www.royaumont.com

After Royaumont, in the next two weeks I will be stopping by at Darmstadt, Germany, and an outdoor festival at Tiszató in Hungary. I will be doing a ‘Conduct Me’ session with the Armel Festival Orchestra. I will check back in here again in less than a month from Portland, OR.

Még egy nap intenzív próbákkal, aztán péntek este koncert az Ulysses Ensemble zenészeivel a gyönyörű Royaumont-ban. Tavaly csak egy napot voltam itt, akkor az Eötvös Péter féle karmesterkurzus zárókoncertjét hallgattam Kurtág és Boulez darabokkal. Idén egy hetet töltök itt a világ minden részéről jött fiatal és tehetséges zenészekkel, és 3 ország 4 zeneszerzőjének darabjaival. A fenti linken megtekinthető a program.
Régi épületek, új zene, gyönyörő nyári idő, remek ételek és francia vörösbor. Mi kellhet még? 🙂

Royaumont után beugrom még Darmstadtba, majd a Tiszatavi Fesztiválra, utóbbin az Armel Fesztivál zenekara élén a jól bevált és népszerű “Conduct Me!” programot csinálom. Kevesebb mint egy hónap múlva újra jelentkezem Portlandből.

Le Lanaudière. Portland Festival Symphony. Sziget: Island of Freedom.

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On July 9, after about 8 years, I conducted the Lanaudière Festival Orchestra again. It was great to return to conduct these amazing musicians, to collaborate with Alain Lefèvre on the piano
http://wikipedia.org
and to enjoy the ambiance of the amphitheater in Joliette, Quebec. Our program was the opening performance of the Lanaudière Festival 2016, an exciting mix of pieces by Tchaikovsky and Respighi.
http://lanaudiere.org
The rehearsals were held downtown Montréal, which gave me a chance to enjoy the Montréal Jazz Festival programs every evening and also to revisit some of my favorite places in one of my favorite cities ever.

After enjoying a brief family vacation my summer season continues with free park concerts in Portland Oregon. Lajos Balogh and I share the concerts this year starting today at Cathedral Park. Tomorrow (Sunday) there will be an all brass program presented at Laurelhurst Park. More symphonic and string concerts to come next weekend and the weekend after. Check out this year’s programs!
http://portlandfestivalsymphony.org

Based on popular demand Armel Opera Festival is presenting a fun 2 hour program every day at the famous Sziget Festival again this year. Scenes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute (staging by Róbert Alföldi), contemporary music improvisation with audience participation, symphonic world music with Hungarian stars, and a live crash course in orchestra conducting will be on the menu. Come and join us in August!
http://szigetfestival.com

Conduct Me!

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Just got home from an hour long live radio interview at Klub Radio. I spoke about the past, about Hungary and the U.S., about conducting, playing the clarinet and composition.
I got to speak about Peter Eötvös
http://eotvospeter.com
the Huntsville Symphony
http://hso.org
the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
http://mrze.hu
and first and foremost about the Armel Opera Festival.
http://armelfestival.org
If you happen to speak or at least understand Hungarian, you are welcome to listen to the show online here 🙂
http://klubradio.hu
The show is called ‘Örömzene’ which translates as “jam session for fun”.
The last segment of the interview was all about the two hour daily program of the Armel Opera Festival in the frame of the the Sziget Festival
http://szigetfestival.com
the biggest rock-pop music summer festival in Central Europe.
Starting tomorrow the Armel Opera Festival presents a two hour long fun and interactive musical program including a series of “Opera Sitcom” performed by the students of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, directed by Andras Almasi Toth. I’ll be leading the audience in an interesting improvisation exercise based on a composition by Peter Eötvös called “Triangel”. Audience members will be distributed triangles of all shapes and sizes and I will play along with me, also hitting three different size triangles wherever I can. The program ends with ‘Conduct Me!’ where brave audience members can get a crash course in conducting from me and get in front of the orchestra and singers and conduct live. On the rep: Aria of The Queen of the Night, Brindisi by Verdi, Prelude and Habanera from Carmen.
I am looking forward to the challenge of engaging audiences that are not necessarily familiar with classical music and opera and make them realize how much fun it actually is to discover Mozart and even contemporary classical music for yourself. I am also happy to share the same island (on river Danube) with several thousand of music lovers and artists like Robbie Williams, the Gogol Bordello or Mariza.