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On August 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Academy of Music, Zoltán Kodály’s three iconic works, Psalm 114, The Peacock, and the Budavári Te Deum, will be performed at an evening entitled “The Peacock Has Taken Flight.”
The concert will feature soloists Mária Lökösházi, Judit Rajk, Márton Komáromi and Zsombor Cserményi, as well as the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra and an occasional choir of some 300 teachers, researchers, and students participating in the 27th International Kodály Symposium, conducted by Péter Erdei, the first director of the Kodály Institute, and the orchestra’s artistic director, Huba Hollókői.
The Kodály Institute in Kecskemét (central Hungary), a faculty of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, opened in September 1975, after two years of preparation on the initiative of Sarolta Péczely, wife of Zoltán Kodály, in an 18th-century former Franciscan monastery in the heart of the city.
The institution, which is unique both in Hungary and abroad, has gained international recognition for its faculty of music teachers, who have introduced generations of students to Hungary’s unique music education system and methods.
In the decades since its foundation, nearly 7,000 students and music teachers from 60 countries have taken part in various study programs, proving that Zoltán Kodály’s intellectual legacy is not only an invaluable asset to Hungarian culture and education, but also part of the world’s intellectual heritage.
Also in 1975, the International Kodály Society (IKS) was founded in connection with the 2nd International Kodály Symposium held in Kecskemét. The highlight of this double anniversary will be the 27th International Kodály Symposium, to be held from August 4 to 8, which will be organized by the jubilarians in collaboration with the 35-year-old Kecskemét Kodály Institute Foundation, the 50-year-old Hirös Agora and the 150-year-old Academy of Music, and will culminate in a concert in Budapest on August 7, which will also be performed in Kecskemét the following day.
Dr. Judit Rajk, singer and director at the Kodály Institute of the Academy of Music, said of the anniversary:
It is a great pleasure that the work of Ferenc Liszt and Zoltán Kodály as school founders has come together and that we can celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kodály Institute and the 150th anniversary of the Academy of Music together.”
She added that both composers fought to make Hungarian musical culture an integral part of European and world art, and they saw music education as one of the most important guarantees of this. “The results of their work and that of their successors are evident in the fact that Hungarian music education is known and recognized in almost every corner of the world, and that some 300 international guests from 37 countries, including many former students, are coming to this anniversary celebration to build on Liszt’s traditions as teachers, choir conductors, performers, creative artists, or researchers, applying Zoltán Kodály’s principles of music education.”
Via MTI; Featured photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt