New autumn concerts at the Liszt Academy

During the autumn season of the Liszt Academy Concert Centre, numerous well-known and much liked musicians as well as globally acclaimed artists will perform on the stage of the music palace for the first time. The Budapest audience will have the honour to listen to and see such world-famous artists as Anna Prohaska, who will sing the parts of Dido and Cleopatra accompanied by Il Giardino Armonico or Jordi Savall, who will beguile the audience with his programme „Earth, Wind & Fire” 1674–1764 for the second time in two years, or the countertenor Michael Chance and the harpsichordist-pianist Maggie Cole. The fans of the black-and-white keys will also have plenty to their liking, as some of the most renowned Hungarian pianists will take to the stage at the Liszt Academy, such as Péter Frankl, who will give a joint chamber music concert with Péter Bársony and Ildikó Komlósi. Also József Balog or Gábor Farkas will perform, not only as a solo pianist but will also give a concert together with Gyöngyi Lukács, while the solo parts of Bach’s concerto for four pianos will be played by Imre Dani, István Lajkó, Diána Szőke and Balázs Szokolay, accompanied by the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Also other prominent metropolitan ensembles will enrich the concert selection of the Grand Hall, such as the Philharmonia Quartett Berlin performing together with László Fenyő, or the Concerto Copenhagen.

Maggie Cole (Photo: John Firth)

Jazz-enthusiasts will suffer no lack either, as on 29 September, they will be able to enjoy the music performed by the New Light Quartet, founded by the saxophonist Dave Liebmann, while the young but yet full-fledged Júlia Karosi will charm the audience with songs by Gershwin. We can welcome the Sárik Péter Trió as a our returning guests, who will play the jazz arrangements of some of Beethoven’s works in the Grand Hall on 4 November as part of the Jazz on Request series. Veronika Harcsa and her established duet partner Bálint Gyémánt will give a record release concert on the 7 December. Karolina Cicha & Bart Palyga’s concert sung in nine languages will be a real feat of world music just as much as the band Romengo playing traditional music of Vlach Gypsies or the jubilee night of the Téka Ensemble, who have been active in the folk music seen for forty years.

Karolina Cicha and Bart Palyga (Photo: Czarli Bajka)

The students of the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music or as it better known the Bartók Konzi (short for „conservatory”) will give the first concert of their series in October. Also, the On the Spot series will continue featuring the various departments of the Liszt Academy. Within in its framework, in November, first the students and teachers of the Church Music Department will have the opportunity to show their prowess in the Solti Hall, then shortly afterwards, the musicians of the Brass Department will demonstrate their skills. The DLA students of the Doctoral School providing the greatest talents with a postgraduate training will also be represented in the autumn concert schedule: their three-part concert series can be enjoyed both inside and outside the Liszt Academy.

This autumn, we will have the honour to host the International Éva Marton Singing Competition for the second time. The public rounds of this international contest with a jury headed by the Professor Emerita of the Liszt Academy, Éva Marton, will be held between 19 and 25, and thanks to the online streaming, it can be followed all over the world. Between 7 and 9 October, the Géza Anda Festival will be hosted by the Liszt Academy, where the second and third place winners of 2015, the first place winner of 1994 and the so far only Hungarian victor of the Swiss Géza Anda Piano Competition, Dénes Várjon will take to the stage. From 17 until 20 November, the Liszt Academy will welcome the kamara.hu festival for the second time. The concerts of the chamber music festivity will present the milestones of the history of chamber music as well as some of the excellent pieces of contemporary chamber music performed by the pianist couple Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon and their world-renowned friends.

To some of the concerts of these festivals, besides the season tickets, also individual single performance tickets have been available since 1 June.

Since its 2013 reopening, the Liszt Academy has greatly concentrated on the musical education of future generations of concert audiences. The small group activities of the Liszt Kidz Academy will welcome children of 6-10 every Saturday between 17 September and 17 December at 10am, while young teenagers between 10 and 15 will be able to participate in a three-part instructive concert series on the unique relationship between music and nature. The music pedagogical sessions for secondary students that were launched in spring 2016 will also continue in the fall. These activities attempt to make classical music both accessible and attractive for teenagers between 14 and 17. Both of the new series of the Liszt Kidz Academy and the entire programme schedule will soon be available on the homepage of the Liszt Academy.

The Concert Centre of the Liszt Academy still offers a significant discount on the season tickets for the nine renewed subscriptions of 2016/17, but it also provides graded discounts for its two festivals in the autumn: the more individual concerts are visited, the higher the discount on the individual tickets. The season tickets as well as single concert tickets can be purchased on the website of the Liszt Academy by clicking on above links and the button „buy” or at the ticket office of the Liszt Academy (1061 Budapest, 8 Liszt Ferenc Square).