Kodály Choir Debrecen and Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen's 2014 China New Year's Concert

Kodály Choir Debrecen and Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen's

2014 China New Year's Concert Tour

Kodály Choir Debrecen

The Kodály Choir founded by György Gulyás in 1955 worked as the choir of the Secondary Music School at the time its foundation.

The choir (as a girls\' choir at that time) achieved its first international success on the International Choir Competition of Llangollen, Wales in 1958. One year later its victory in Arezzo started the career as a mixed choir. The Kodály Choir has been working as a professional choir since 1971; it is sponsored by Debrecen, the second largest town in Hungary. The repertoire of the ensemble is very rich; it ranges from the unaccompanied, a\'capella pieces through the European classical oratorios to the newest contemporary choral works. Several world presentation and first Hungarian presentation of compositions of Hungarian and foreign composers may be attached to the choir, but naturally the compositions of Zoltán Kodály are in the centre of the repertoire.

A non-exhaustive list of the most important guest conductors: Miklós Erdélyi, János Ferencsik, Iván Fischer, Ervin Lukács, Ádám Medveczky, András Mihály, Vilmos Rubányi, Viktor Vaszy, Tamás Vásáry, Pierre Cao, Lamberto Gardelli, Martin Haselböck, Jürgen Jürgens, Dmitry Kabelevsky, Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro, Ennio Morricone, John Nelson, Helmuth Rilling, Karolos Trikolidis, Howard Williams, Peter Broadbent, Zoltán Kocsis, Karl Jenkins, and Florian Helgath.

The choir - led by Zoltán Pad as chorus master since 2009 - has been working as Kodály Choir Debrecen since 2011, in a close cooperation with the name changing orchestra (KodályPhilharmonic Debrecen) as a part of the Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen (led by Dániel Somogyi-Tóth) by the permission of Mrs. Kodály, Sarolta Péczely. This synergy offers a huge potential; the Kodály Choir gets more space, reputation and fame in the music of Hungary, or even of the world and taking forward the mission of Zoltán Kodály together with the orchestra.

The Kodály Choir keeps in contact continuously with the leading chorus masters and conductors of the world. Since 1955 it has given more than 2500 concerts in more than 40 countries, for instance in the Kennedy Center, Washington, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and they gave concerts in Jerusalem, Manila, and even in Mexico City.

Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen's

May 13, 1923 was a decisive moment for the music of the Civis town, when the town's philharmonic orchestra gave its first solo concert. Their name was Debrecen MÁV Philharmonic Orchestra at that time, and it soon became the No.1 symphonic orchestra outside Budapest during the lead of Emil Ábrányi.

In 1951 Vilmos Rubányi was hired as conductor and the orchestra was declared independent in January, 1952 by MÁV, after 29 years of operating. Since then the orchestra, beyond their concerts organized by National Philharmonia all over Hungary, have continued to participate in the opera performances of the Csokonai Theatre. The orchestra be- came one of the significant factors for the music of Hungary under the led of Rubányi. The Kodály Girls' Choir founded by György Gulyás appeared more and more often together with the orchestra and carried on a cultural mission all over Hungary as the orchestra of "Opera on Wheels" sponsored by MÁV.

Following the regime change the Municipality of Debrecen immediately recognized their value and role in the life of the town and the region, and they took over sponsoring under the name of Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra was led by leading Hungarian conductors like János Ferencsik, Ádám Medveczky, János Kovács, András Ligeti, Tamás Vásáry and Zoltán Kocsis, as well as several famous international conductors, like Carlo Zecchi, Lamberto Gardelli, Charles Dutoit, Karel Ancerl, and Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro in the last decades. Beyond Hun- garian musicians, like Annie Fischer, Dezső Ránki, Zoltán Kocsis, Miklós Perényi, Jenő Jandó and Gergely Bogányi, the orchestra gave concert with the contribution of Gideon Kremer, Martha Argerich, György Sándor, Sándor Végh, Lazar Bermann and Igor Oistrakh.

The orchestra has been working as Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen by the permission of Mrs. Kodály, Sarolta Péczely from October, 2011 as part of the Kodály Philharmonia Debrecen. Dániel Somogyi-Tóth has been the general and artistic director since 1 October 2011; he was the creator of the new image of the Kodály Philharmonics at the same time. He is the director of the institute of the merged two ensembles, undertaking coordination and development of the complete classical music of Debrecen; his tasks include providing more space, reputation and fame to the Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen in the music of Hungary, or even of the world and taking forward the mission of Zoltán Kodály by the orchestra's name, mission and art. His assistant in the professional development of the orchestra is the artistic consultant, Tibor Bényi, the famous cellist living in Salzburg.

Traditionally it is of essentially importance for the orchestra to interpret Hungarian compositions, even some con- temporary ones, but the ensemble concerns about those requirements of the audience to listen to popular, frequent- ly performed compositions; therefore the orchestra also participates in productions for the audience of pop music. Naturally the essence of the orchestral repertoire includes mainly the compositions of Zoltán Kodály. And since the orchestra is unique in the countryside to cooperate with a choir of such level, a decisive element of the repertoire is performing oratorios.

The orchestra has been invited several times to France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, South-Korea and Morocco, where they performed at famous festivals.

Commander-in-chief and Artistic Director

Dániel Somogyi-Tóth is the musical director and conductor of the Csokonai Theatre and the director and artistic leader of the Kodály Filharmónia (Philharmonics) of Debrecen. He was born in 1981 in Budapest; studied piano and composition at Béla Bartók Conservatory; graduated from the conductor and organist faculty of Franz Liszt Academy of Music, as a pupil of Tamás Gál and Gábor Lehotka, in 2006. Since December 2007, he has been the artistic director and conductor of the Békés County Symphony Orchestra, with whom he received a Príma Award in November 2008. Since January 2009, he is the Budapest permanent guest conductor of the Budapest Operetta Theatre and from 2010, also the opera conductor of the National Theatre of Pécs. Before his conducting career, he had been the organist and cembalist of the Hungarian Telekom Symphony Orchestra and András Ligeti music director's assistant for years. As an orchestra member, as an organist or as a conductor, he has performed in many European cities, and has worked with such world-renowned artists as Nigel Kennedy, Sir Neville Marriner, Yuri Simonov, Erika Miklósa, Laurent Petitgirard, or Bobby McFerrin.

Choir conductor Zoltan Pad

Since 1995 he has been the choir conductor of the Choir of Kislőd (Hungary).

While staying in Munich he had the opportunity to conduct the Madrigal Choir (of Prof. Max Frey) at a concert.

On June 17, 2004 he conducted the Himmelfahrts Oratorium of J. S. Bach, played by the Foro Regis Musica Antiqua Ensemble in Munich.

In March 2007 he received the Audience Award at the 4th International Competition of Young Choir Conductors, and additionally received the Special Award given to the most successful Hungarian competitor.

Cellist, conductor and artistic adviser Tibor Bényi

Tibor Bényi was born in Hungary, studied at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and has lived in Salzburg since 1991. In 1978 and 1984 he won first prize in the Hungarian National Cello Competition. At the age of 18 he was awarded the Kodály Prize. Deserving of special mention is his long-lasting collaboration as a chamber player with Wilhelm Hübner, leader of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Tibor Bényi has served on the juries of international cello competitions and, since 1998, has held masterclasses in Bolzano. Since 1997 he has directed and appeared as a soloist with the Mozart Chamber Orchestra, and at the same time he has been artistic director of the Salzburg Chamber Music Academy. He is in great demand as a soloist and chamber musician at various international festivals, in Europe and beyond.

Date

Decemeber,2013-January，2014

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