Hungary’s most celebrated conservatory, the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, will join ten other elite musical institutions this summer in Beijing just prior to the Olympic Games for “Musicathlon: The Conservatory Music Festival.” Co-hosted by Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music (U.S.A.), the international gathering of performers and master teachers will celebrate music and musicianship in the Olympic spirit. Concerts, lectures, and master classes will take place in various venues in Beijing from July 9 to July 24.
Conceived by Yale School of Music Dean Robert Blocker and President of Beijing Central Conservatory Cizhao Wang, “Musicathlon: The Conservatory Music Festival” will bring together students and faculty from the Shanghai Conservatory, Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), Royal Academy of Music (London), Liszt Academy (Budapest), Korean National University of the Arts, Sydney Conservatorium, The Juilliard School (New York), and the Beethoven Institute at the University of Music and Performing Arts (Vienna), as well as the two host institutions.
At the festival, musicians from the Franz Liszt Academy will offer a full program of four concerts (three solo recitals and a joint concert , one master class, and a lecture all taking place on Thursday, July 17, and Friday, July 18. The concert programs feature music by Hungarian composers Franz Liszt, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernő Dohnányi, and György Ligeti along with music by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and several international contemporary composers. István Várdai, cello; Gábor Farkas and István Lajkó, piano; and László Tömösközi, percussion. Prof. András Batta, Director of the Academy, will lecture on the influence of Hungarian Folk Music on the Great Hungarian Composers. Continue reading ‘Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy at the Musicathlon’
