Andrea Vigh conferred the title ’Honorary Patron’ to the Sapporo Kitara Concert Hall

To honour the Jubilee, the President of the Liszt Academy, Dr Andrea Vigh presented the Kitara Concert Hall with the title ’Honorary Patron’ for their outstanding cultural intermediary activities and for helping to maintain the prestigious reputation of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Japan. At the gala concert, the most renowned artists and professors of the Hungarian university – Andrea Vigh, Sándor Falvai, István Lantos and Miklós Perényi were addressing the ethos of the Liszt Academy, celebrating the past of two decades and welcoming future cooperation.

Prior to the gala concert, the Liszt Academy delegation visited the mayor of Sapporo City, Mr Katsuhiro Akimoto and his deputy to express their gratitude for the city’s long-standing and unceasing support. Within the framework of the Seminar - which has taken place annually since July, 1997 - some of the most outstanding educators of the Liszt Academy visit Hokkaido to deliver masterclasses, lectures and concerts which reflect the world-famous music and traditional music education of the Liszt Academy to the students from all over Japan. The extraordinary professional standard of the Seminar is illustrated best by the fact that the best student can give concert within the framework of next year’s Budapest Spring Festival.

A preliminary admission audition is now added to the Seminar’s programme, and the most gifted young musicians can study at the Liszt Academy from the following academic year onwards.  In the last 20 years, more than seven hundred students have participated in the Seminar and more than a hundred students have passed the entrance exam, so it is not exaggerated to claim that the Seminar is one of the most important collaboration programmes of the Liszt Academy.