The piano pieces of two Hungarian composers are among the international finalist entries that have been selected to be performed on 25 November from over two hundred submissions.

The American violinist, a resident of Hungary for the past two years, started teaching at the Liszt Academy this semester. In addition, he participates in Hungarian music life as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster. We asked him about his goals in teaching as well as the challenges of sharing knowledge in the 21st century.

Europe’s most supreme chamber music ensembles will arrive to the Music Academy in 2019 alongside soloists like Lisa Batiashvili or István Várdai. The two Hungarian violin virtuosos Barnabás Kelemen and Kristóf Baráti are playing chamber music while Ádám Fisher is to appear on stage as a conductor. The Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir will  perform as resident ensemble and the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and others. Contemporary music enthusiasts can listen to the works  of György Kurtág and György Ligeti as well as a composers’ group of young Hungarians. Of course the popular series Liszt Kidz Academy is to be continued in the spring.

László Norbert Nemes, director of the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir, knows the sensation that he shares with so many others in Hungary: when someone adds their own voice to the harmony, this choir member becomes part a sublime, majestic unity.

The fifth Budapest International Guitar Festival is to be held this year, keeping the guitar in chamber music in focus this time. We asked the founder of the festival: Liszt Prize winning guitarrist József Eötvös, head of Strings Department at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music regarding the programme and the performing artists.

As a result of nine years of efforts and cooperation, restored Voit organ of symbolic importance in Hungarian music life, sounded again in the Grand Hall of the Academy of Music on 22 October. Relocation and restoration of the first organ installed in a concert hall in Hungary, after a century of vicissitudes, was an event of significance for the conservation of European cultural heritage as well.