Remembering Through Music
June 29th 2015
By Kevin Burns
“The magnitude of the Holocaust, planned and carried out by the Nazis, must be forever seared in our collective memory…
With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils…
We pledge to strengthen our efforts to promote education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust…”
Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust
January 2000
In the first month of this millennium at a conference in Stockholm, representatives from 46 governments met to establish ways to remember the holocaust. The outcome of their meeting was an 8-point declaration that lead to the creation of an international governmental organization, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. This year the government of Hungary is chair of the Alliance which now has 31 member countries, including Hungary and Canada. Dr. Bálint Ódor, Hungary’s ambassador in Canada, hosted a major commemorative event at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, entitled Remembering Through Music. Read more
Helen Kashap takes the stage for her professional orchestral debut
In honour of Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday, the RSO will perform Hungarian music. Saskatchewan-born Helen Kashap is proud to take the stage for her professional orchestral debut playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Hailed by Interlochen Public Radio USA as “an exciting pianist full of energy and spirit”, twenty-two year old Helen Kashap, a native of Saskatoon, has been seen in performance across Canada, the United States and Europe, most recently appearing in a concert at the International Keyboard Festival in Gijon, Spain. Read more
Liszt bicentenary: Alan Walker and Valerie Tryon in Fredericton, May 28th 2011
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz (Ferenc) Liszt. Many events have been scheduled around the world to mark this anniversary. In the coming weeks and months we will highlight some of the Canadian events that celebrate the life and work of this great Hungarian composer. The article below is the second one; the first is the interview with Hungarian pianist Tamas Erdi who will give a recital at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto on May 24th 2011.
Franz Liszt: The cultural ambassador of the 19th century.
April 28th, 2011
By Kevin Burns
Valerie Tryon
It’s hard to imagine anyone alive who knows more about Franz Liszt than McMaster University’s Alan Walker. On May 28, as part of the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada’s participation in the 2011 Congress of the Humanities, Walker will present a lecture: “Franz Liszt: The cultural ambassador of the 19th century.” This will be followed by a recital of selections from Liszt’s music performed by the renowned Canadian pianist and Juno Award winner, Valerie Tryon. Read more
Tamás Érdi
How music flows from his head via his heart to the tips of his fingers
April 5, 2011
By Kevin Burns
To be a successful concert artist is a major achievement. To accomplish this without being able to see shows what can happens when artistic giftedness, gutsy determination, and innovative teaching methods combine. The Budapest-born pianist, Tamás Érdi, now in this 30s, is a truly gifted musician with a flourishing international career behind him and ahead of him. He is not celebrated sympathetically as a blind musician, rather he is a successful classical musician who has found his own unique way to work around a debilitating challenge: blindness. His vision loss has not prevented him from playing concerts and recitals in Hungary, Canada – which he describes as his second home – and the United States. Read more
Canada’s Alexander Seredenko and Hungary’s Adam Banda are pioneers in a new musical “exchange” program
March 8, 2011
By Kevin Burns
Canada’s Alexander Seredenko and Hungary’s Adam Banda are pioneers in a new musical “exchange” program organized by Andrea Fellner and János Vecsernyés
Franz Liszt once described the role of the artist as “the bearer of the beautiful.” There’s a new exchange initiative designed to bring a new generation of “bearers of the beautiful” from Hungary to Canada, and from Canada to Hungary. This initiative involves young and highly talented musicians. Read more
Working Things out with Music
Kati Agócs and Winnipeg’s New Music Festival
February 7, 2011
By Kevin Burns
Kati Agócs found herself sandwiched between Kelly-Marie Murphy’s evocation of hundreds of starlings in flight and Krzysztof Penderecki’s thunderous choral celebration of Jerusalem. The event was the closing night concert of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival. For twenty years this festival has showcased the work of living Canadian and international composers during what is typically the coldest week of a Winnipeg winter.
For seven nights, composers come on stage and explain to audiences about what they will hear. Kati Agócs told her audience that during …like treasure hidden in a field, her piece for orchestra, “You’re going to hear some bells.” And the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s percussionist certainly delivered. Read more
Gabor Finta’s new composition performed
May 20th 2010
Gabor Finta’s Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra was performed by NAC violinist Edvard Skerjanc and the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa on April 24th 2010. The composition was written at the special request of Edvard Skerjanc for violin and piano first and was performed in that form in 2009. Mr Finta subsequently orchestrated the piece and it received its première to the enjoyment of the audience with Mr Skrjanc and the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra. For more information about the concert, click here.
Annual concert of Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Montreal
April 16th 2010
The annual concert of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) of Montreal on April 21st 2010 will be devoted to the music of three composers, including Hungarian György Kurtág. The highlight of the concert will be a performance of Kurtág’s Four Songs on Poems by Anna Akhmatova, Opus 41, composed in 1997 and first performed in New York in 2009. The performance on April 21st will be the work’s Canadian première and will feature Russian soprano Natalya Zagorinskaya, for whom the work was composed. The program also includes works by Canadian composer Serge Garant and Karlheinz Stockhasuen.
The concert takes place at the Salle Claude Champagne, 200 Avenue Vincent d’Indy, Montreal on Wednesday April 21st at 8 pm. For details and tickets click on the Press Release or visit NEM’s website at www.lenem.ca
Beatrix Finta receives “Pro Cultura Hungarica” Award
March 21th 2010
Beatrix Finta, well-known Ottawa music teacher and choir director received the PRO CULTURA HUNGARICA award on March 12th 2010 in recognition of her lifetime ahcievements in the field of musical education in Canada. Read more
Zoltan Kalman, clarinettist
By Eva Hegyi
December 2009
The Hungarian-born clarinettist Zoltan Kalman was trained at the renowned Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. After graduating, he became principal clarinettist with the Hungarian State Orchestra before serving for six years as principal with the Budapest Opera Orchestra. Kalman arrived in Canada in 1989 and has since appeared as guest soloist with a number of orchestras and ensembles in Ontario. Read more
Krisztina Szabó in concert March 28, 2010 in Ottawa
Krisztina Szabó, described as “simply one of the most exciting singers in the country right now,” is a Canadian-Hungarian mezzo-soprano who made her NAC debut in January 2005. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Szabó finished her postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England. She was awarded an Emerging Artist grant from the Canada Council and was a winner of the 1997 Mozart Competition, held under the auspices of the Canadian Opera Company. In 1998 she joined the Canadian Opera’s Ensemble Studio. Read more
Montreal concert in honour of György Kurtág
On Wednesday February 10th at 8 PM in the ‘Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur’ in Montreal, a concert will be held in honour of György Kurtág. View the poster
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
In 1986 some 189,000 people of Hungarian origin were living in Canada. The first Hungarians arrived via the USA ca 1886 and settled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Other groups immigrated between 1901 and 1911 and several established communities in Alberta. The folk culture of the early settlements has been researched by Kenneth Peacock, who collected over 150 songs. Read more
Singer Alanis Morissette inducted into music hall of fame to the delight of her Hungarian-born mother
By Randy Ray
Ottawa-born rock star Alanis Morissette on March 6 is to be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame and at the same time will receive a separate award for lifetime achievement. Read more
Robi Botos Trio
The main stage and the Toronto Jazz Festival as a whole had a strong opening with the Robi Botos Trio. How appropriate that the Festival headline some of its high-flying resident Jazz artists at the start of its 20th anniversary… Read more
Gabor Finta
Gabor Finta was born and educated in Hungary. His post-secondary musical studies between 1963-1970 led to a Master’s degree in piano, choral conducting and music education from the Franz Liszt Academy (University) of Music, Budapest… Read more
Janos Csaba
Janos Csaba started studying violin at the age of 10 at the local conservatory in Miskolc, Hungary, before switching to the viola in his late teens… Read more
Géza De Kresz
Géza De Kresz, a prominent member of the international music world, was the founding president of the Hungarian Helicon Society of Toronto.
Born in 1882 in Hungary, Géza de Kresz began his musical career in Europe. After working as violinist at the Romanian royal court, he became leader of the orchestra and soloist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra when it was directed by Arthur Nikisch and Richard Strauss… Read the full article in English or in Hungarian