600 Days, Liszt Academy, Dome/ 600 nap, Zenekadémia, Dome

About three weeks and three (+1) projects in Budapest, Hungary this month.
Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 6) as part of the program of the contemporary art festival, CAFe Budapest, I will be conducting two compositions by László Melis, composer of the Oscar-winning movie, Son of Saul at the Budapest Music Center. Melis has passed 600 days ago, hence the title of the concert. All the participating musicians, including myself, have agreed to offer their performance fee to support his daughter and widow.
You can read about this concert here:
https://bmc.hu

On October 22 I will be conducting the symphony orchestra of the Liszt Academy in a program of music by Liszt, Ligeti and Brahms. Click the link below for detailed information.

https://zeneakademia.hu

On October 26&27 I will be conducting a recording session of a contemporary guitar concerto by Arnaud Fillion. The orchestra will be comprised of the members of the Hungarian Radio Symphony.

Talking about Hungarian Radio, just yesterday I have had a great recording session with flutist Gergely Ittzés and violist Péter Bársony. These two wonderful musicians have decided that they wanted to make a professional recording of my almost-five-minute-long duo, entitled ‘Dome’. We have enjoyed every minute of the 2 and a half hour session. I can’t wait to hear the edited version soon!

Tegnap, egy két és fél órás jókedvű ülés alatt elkészült fuvola-brácsa duóm, a ‘Dome’ stúdiófelvétele a Magyar Rádióban. Ittzés Gergely és Bársony Péter gyönyörűen muzsikáltak. Alpár Tibor zenei rendezővel, és Lukács Miklós hangmérnökkel együtt a pult mögül élvezhettem a – nem könnyű – darab minden apró, a muzsikusok által szépen kidolgozott részletét. Örömmel várom majd az összevágott verziót!

A CAFé Budapest programjaként holnap, október 6-án, vasárnap a BMC-ben dirigálok két művet a Melis László zeneszerző emlékére rendezett koncerten. A BMC a bevételt, a résztvevők pedig felléptidíjukat ajánlották fel a 600 napja elhúnyt zenész-zeneszerző özvegye és gyermeke megsegítésére.

https://bmc.hu

Október 22-én első alkalommal vezényelem majd a Zeneakadémia szimfonikus zenekarát. Rohmann Ditta szólójával hangzik majd fel Ligeti Csellóversenye, Liszt A bölcsőtől a sírig című szimfonikus költeménye és Brahms IV. szimfóniája között. A programról az alábbi linken lehet részleteket olvasni.

https://zeneakademia.hu

Október 26,- és 27-én Arnaud Fillion új gitárversenyének stúdiófelvételét vezénylem majd a Magyar Rádiózenekar zenészeinek élén. Így jön össze 3+1 izgalmas projekt a Budapesten töltött kb. három októberi hét alatt.

Georgia Bottoms in Budapest, Interviews, Reviews, Videos

A pretty long, exhausting and fun period is over. Georgia Bottoms, A Comic Opera of the Modern South had a new, Hungarian production in the frame of CAFe (Contemporary Art Festival) Budapest at the Liszt Academy. The production was a success, the audience loved it and so far the critics had a positive opinion as well. I am glad, that this 85 minute long, one act chamber opera made quite a few people among Hungarian intellectuals to go online and buy Mark Childress’ original novel, Georgia Bottoms. The book deserves attention, and a great translation for the European and Hungarian market. Luckily, many of the intellectuals interested in my art can speak and read English. They all bought the book here, and you should, too!
http://www.amazon.com

Unfortunately however, – this is what happens when a country has a language that nobody else is speaking,- all the interviews and reviews below are in Hungarian. This time being a Hungarian has an advantage: you get way more info about the opera, the production and you can also read about many other topics that came up in the interviews in the original language. I translated a couple of things below for my English speaking friends, and I can promise you that no music-lover will be left behind. I am in the process of translating a selection of the interviews and posting them online as soon as I can. In the meantime, enjoy what you can by clicking on the links below!

Let’s start with a really well translated interview with Rebecca Nelsen, who has been doing Georgia Bottoms’ role for the second time in two years. I myself have learned a couple of interesting, new things about what it’s like to be a woman in the South.
“The Era of Just Standing And Singing Is Over”
http://www.fidelio.hu

By clicking on the link below you can read the very first (posted just a couple of hours after the Sunday premiere) instant feedback by a local theater/ music-theater blogger. She will be posting more about Georgia Bottoms, once the entire CAFe Budapest Festival is over.
http://www.mezeinezo.hu

Here are three interviews with me, mostly about Georgia Bottoms, but also about teaching, conducting and politics.
“When A Chord Sounds That Can Feel Really Good”
http://www.operavilag.net

“I Want to Write Music I’ve Never Heard Before”
http://www.theater.hu

“Constant Failures Mean The System Is Working”
http://www.papageno.hu

“You Cannot Put 9-11 Into Music” (interview) + “Bittersweet Georgia” (review)
These articles will be available for free soon via the website link below.
According to this review my music is from the Deep South 🙂 The critic loved the humor of the opera in text, in music and in staging as well/ “…a múlt vasárnapi bemutatón átütővé vált a mű humora: szövegben, játékban és – éppen nem mellesleg – zenében egyaránt.”
http://magyarnarancs.hu

“Under Lucky Stars”
This critic loved the production in every way possible, including the staging by Andras Alamai Toth, the singing of the entire cast, especially Rebecca Nelsen and Keith Browning, the quality of the musicians of Ensemble UMZE, and the music itself. The critic had a nice summary of my music as well, Let me copy it here, first just in Hungarian.

“A muzsika majd’ minden hangjából árad az amerikai Dél hangulatát megidéző couleur locale, de hiba lenne, ha csak ennyit jegyeznénk meg az igényes kompozícióról, mely (az utóbbi évek kortársopera-tendenciáival ellentétben) jóval több egyszer használatos alkalmazott zenénél: saját értékénél fogva is emlékezetünkbe vésődik, miközben híven festi a szöveg dramaturgiai fordulatait. A posztmodern jó szokásához híven bőven idéz különböző zenei stílusok eszköztárából, ám ezeket egységes keretbe foglalja – sosem támad az az érzésünk, hogy bármely hang is öncélúan került volna a partitúrába. Ez a határozott zeneszerzői egyéniség biztos ismertetőjegye.”

http://nepszava.hu

The FaceBook page of CAFe Budapest festival. There is an interview with me about Georgia Bottoms and about getting our of your comfort zone in general. Again, the interview is in Hungarian, but the “Day 3 of the Festival” video can be enjoyed without speaking this one of a kind language.
http://www.facebook.com/CAFeBudapestOfficial

Oh yes, and I did get to translate Mark Childress’ RAP lyrics for a newly added scene into Hungarian for the surtitles. I even made it rhyme. 🙂

Just A Quick Note

I promise I will write more and in details later.
For now just the bare facts:

UMZF (New Hungarian Music Forum) composers’ competition, homage to Bela Bartok, final round for chamber ensemble compositions, October 6 at the Budapest Music Center with the Hungarian Radio Symphony, live radio broadcast
Marcell Dargay: Monumentum for The Eternal Immigrant
Mate Balogh: Melodiemusik
Alessio Elia: Disappearing Rainbows
Laszlo Sandor: Divertimento – Giuoco dei suoni
http://bmc.hu

UMZF (New Hungarian Music Forum) composers’ competition, homage to Bela Bartok, final round for orchestral compositions, October 7 at Palace of the Arts, Budapest (MUPA) with the Hungarian Radio Symphony, live radio broadcast
Andrej Slezak: inSpiral
Balazs Horvath: Werkmusik for Beatboxer and orchestra
Mate balogh: Quintet
Gyula Bankovi: Zoldfeny-udvaru ej (Greenlight-garden light)
http://mupa.hu

Two performances of the new version of “Spring Awakening”, a one act opera by Mate Bella at the Academy of Music, Budapest (October 9 & 11)
http://zeneakademia.hu