The least important are not forbidden to dream of great things, and even modestly to aim at them, according to the measure of their abilities.

Liszt to Antal Augusz

Tamás Balogh is the winner of the 2013 Creative Art Award

1 October 2013

The Liszt Academy’s second-year jazz student proved best in the György Vukán-founded competition held on 22nd September 2013.

The Kossuth and Erkel Award winning pianist, who passed away this summer, founded the Creative Art Award in 2009. These were his words then:

"My goal with the award was to draw attention to the need for creativity, to help honor the importance of improvisation and fuel its revival with inspiration, which was all once a fundamental part of musical life. Unfortunately, especially in the 20th century, music became divided into composers and performers, which, despite its undeniable advantages, forced the ‘creative' man – composer and performer in one - back and into the background to an incredibly great extent."

The founder saw the winner of the competition as someone who can create a round, well-formed, valuable and spontaneous ‘composition' that unfolds the given theme in a high-class instrumental performance, without genre limitations, in the spirit of the old greats.

The competition, organized for the 2nd time this year, was open again for all creative Hungarian pianists between the ages of 14-30, independently of genres and qualifications.

The two-round competition was held on 22th September 2013 in the Chamber Hall of the Old Academy of Music. The three-member jury presided by Binder Károly primarily evaluated the contestants' improvisational skills.

Tamás Balogh, second-year jazz and composition student of the Liszt Academy, proved to be best in 2013.

Congratulations!

You can read a more detailed photo-illustrated account of the finals on Jazzma.hu.