Between 17th May and 11th June, Debrecen will present a cross-section of the city’s musical life with a diverse and high to quality series of programmes at the invitation of the Hungarian House of Music in Budapest.
This three-week series of events is the debut of the House of Hungarian Music’s series of events, the Városkapu (City Gate), which showcases the musical life of Hungarian cities. The first part of the series, City Gate – Debrecen, will open a gateway to Debrecen in the House of Hungarian Music, offering a cross-section of the city’s musical life.
The City of Debrecen is delighted to have accepted the invitation and will be present in the new sanctuary of Hungarian music with a series of programmes covering almost all musical genres. The Debrecen Music Council, the Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen, the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen, Zenede, the Lighthouse group and Rocksuli have all been involved in putting together the programmes. Thanks to the Municipality of Debrecen, all the events at the Hungarian House of Music are free of charge, with a symbolic registration fee.
A special feature of the programme is that three works are written and performed by renowned musicians especially for this occasion – all three productions are linked to the city of Debrecen through a part of the performers and their themes. These three pieces of music will be presented to the public in Debrecen during April, in public performances before the premiere. The productions are supported by the Petőfi Cultural Agency and the Ministry of Human Resources through a call for proposals for the presentation of new music.
The first performance of the experimental jazz piece EASTERN BANALITY will take place on Thursday 21st April at the Nagyerdei Water Tower. The work is based on musical clichés, clichéd melodic fragments and motifs related to the city of Debrecen, explored by two leading artists with ties to Debrecen, the Europe-wide renowned jazz saxophonist Ákos Szelevényi and guitarist Ádám Mészáros. A special feature of the performance is that several renowned young jazz musicians will be joined on stage by Debrecen’s iconic film director, Szabolcs Hajdu.
The musical-literary choral work AJTÓK is written by Róbert Hrutka and Krisztián Grecsó, with a key role for the Lautitia Choir of Debrecen, and the choral solos are written by former faculty member Mátyás Ölveti, a cellist. The instrumental choral work is an evening-long fusion of genres, a kind of oratorio that opens up new horizons; a soul-stirring encounter of songs, montages and prose. The Debrecen premiere will take place on 24th April at the Lovarda.
Last but not least, on 28th April, also under the auspices of the Bartók Spring Festival Weeks, the performance MIHÁLY – Ghosts of a City will take place at the Nagyerde Water Tower, a modern musical journey through the Csokonai universe. The surreal “literary DJ-set” presenting Mihály Csokonai Vitéz in a contemporary context was created by Zsolt Prieger, founder of Anima Sound System, his fellow artists are Mihály Balázsovics (MC Tink – the Mulato Aztek) rapper and Debrecen jazz trumpeter Gábor Subicz, with Evelin Ivy as a singer.
In the framework of the Városkapu – Debrecen series, the following events will take place in the Hungarian Music House in the city centre (Budapest, Olof Palme Sétány 3.)
- 17th May, (Tuesday) 7:00 p.m.: opening of the series of events, including the opening of the sound installation Ring My Bell by Balázs Antal and the pop-up exhibition based on Debrecen music stories by Sándor Imreh, street artist and visual artist
- 17 May, (Tuesday), 8:00 p.m.: Five young Debrecen light music groups – Balázs-Földi Virág, The Crams, Heavy Brains, Ex Anima and Nasiimov – will perform at the Made In Debrecen Showcase evening.
- 17th May onwards, the Lighthouse Association’s creative team will present six different audiovisual works on the 360-degree screen of the Hungarian House of Music’s sound dome
- 26th May, (Thursday) 8:00 p.m.: Eastern Banality (see above)
- 26th May, (Thursday) 9:00 p.m. – DJ night on the open-air stage with The Magic Track and Grabosky, featuring a selection of his favourite records
- 5th June, (Sunday) 10:30 a.m. – Thanks to Zenede Debrecen, the open-air stage of the House of Music will host the Zenede Kispendely singing group, the Pulutyka group of the Alba Regia Elementary Art School in Székesfehérvár, the Parapács orchestra and the play master Péter Novák, for a dramatic, interactive dance performance of Csillagkapu (Stargate).
- 10th June, 5:30 p.m.: Ajtók (see above)
- 10th June, 9:00 p.m.: MIHÁLY, – the ghosts of a city (see above)
- 11th June, (Saturday) 10:30 a.m. – 50 minutes around the world- a family music education programme with the Debrecen-based Talamba Percussion Ensemble. During the performance, children learn to love not only music but also the diversity of the world through play.
- 11th June, (Saturday), 6:00 p.m. – Scandinavian minimalism and neo-baroque style of Arvo Pärt will be presented from several sides, through works written for a variety of apparatuses, in Péter Zombola’s composer’s recital, performed by students of the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen
- 11th June, (Saturday) 8:00 p.m. – Boundless Music, a joint concert of the Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kodály Choir Debrecen and the Choir of the Oradea State Philharmonic Orchestra
Részletes program a Magyar Zene Háza weboldalán, az alábbi linken érhető el: https://magyarzenehaza.com/programsorozatok/varoskapu-debrecen
