Amadinda Percussion Project Presented by Liszt Academy

It is hardly necessary to introduce Amadinda Percussion Group. Several of the members of the group are well-established teachers and what is more, they have recently combined the classroom and concert world through a complex initiative, the Amadinda Percussion Project workshop and concert process. The current concert pays tribute to Oszkár Balázs, about whom Zoltán Rácz said not long ago: “If one were to think over how much was packed into the decades of the remarkable career of Oszkár Balázs, then I think it highly likely one would fail because he was active in so many areas. He was a musician, teacher and founder of a school, composer, founder and artistic director of Budapest Percussion Ensemble, jack-of-all-trades in the creation of instruments. Behind this huge variety lay an exceptional personality who throughout his life generously bestowed on us – both students and colleagues – the fruits of his labour, his cheerfulness and perhaps most importantly, his time he dedicated to us. There are things that one fully understands only decades later. The oeuvre of Oszkár Balázs is just such a thing; I understood his greatness only after the passage of many decades.” In the first half of the programme, there are three chamber music works Oszkár Balázs composed for his students launching themselves on a career. After the intermission, in addition to an Oszkár Balázs composition, two other significant works by John Cage and Sándor Balassa are performed, which demand skilled instrumentalists, and which were first on the programme of the Budapest Percussion Ensemble established by Oszkár Balázs in the 1970s, and then frequently appeared on the Amadinda programmes as well.