Borderless Rythm: Balázs Virágh I Attila Gyárfás

This programme is held in Hungarian.

The House of Music Hungary is launching a new series entitled Boundless Rhythm, through which we wish to demonstrate how diverse the drums and other percussion instruments can be, and that it is possible to create music with them that offers a complete musical experience. For the first event of the Boundless Rhythm series, two shorter concerts (twice half an hour separated by a short interval) each present a facet of the world of percussion instruments. In the first half, Attila Gyárfás, a leading figure in Hungarian jazz and experimental music, will showcase his second solo album. Gyárfás is one of the quietest and most delicate exponents of the drums in the genre and his concert promises to be a genuine curiosity. In the second half, Balázs Virágh, the outstanding player of the pakhavaj who has earned international recognition despite his young age, will perform a classical Indian solo concert with vocal and tanpura accompaniment. Virágh will bring to life the rhythm of the rebirth of love and nature every spring with his partners, the dhrupad singer Harkeerat Mangat and the tanpura player Sára Ábrahám.

Attila Gyárfás: Magnified Solos – solo album launch concert

Attila Gyárfás’s Magnified Solos solo album was born of a need to be pragmatic: how can we practice at home late at night without disturbing the neighbours? To his surprise, he found a world of sound rich in variations and with delicate effects and fragile textures that, when recorded with the most sensitive microphones, can be radically amplified and performed before an audience. The album will appear on vinyl as the first release of the JazzaJ open music series launched in 2011. The drummer and percussionist Attila Gyárfás is primarily interested in a style of play based on free improvisation and the sounds that can be brought forth by striking the drum kit in unusual ways. The jazz drums teacher at the Liszt Academy can be heard on more than 20 records. In the course of his career to date, he has given countless solo concerts – among them in New York, Milan and Vicenza. He has released two records as a band leader (Cloud Factory in 2018 and Randomity in 2020), and his solo record entitled Minimal Distance appeared in 2022. He jointly launched an electro-acoustic duo project with composer Bálint Bolcsó, and is also a member of the Quelquefois and Kovász formations. Balázs Virágh - Dhamar: A szerelem ritmusai ('The Rythms of Love') In India, they believe that the rhythm of love is eternal and that it returns to life every spring when the divine bond between Radha and Krishna are celebrated. In the Braj region, where legend has it the two divine beings grew up, the arrival of spring is celebrated in the hues of love and joy at the Holi festival. The stories recount how Radha and Krishna danced to a unique beat, the rhythm of Dhamar, which continues to represent the rebirth of love and nature in the form of deep spiritual connections. This ancient, lyrical rhythm is brought to life by the pakhavaj artist Balázs Virágh, the dhrupad singer Mangat Harkeerat and the tanpura player Sára Ábrahám.

Balázs Virágh is a classical Indian musician of international acclaim, more specifically as a player of the northern Indian percussion instrument known as the pakhavaj. His teacher, Pt. Mohan Shyam Sharma is one of India’s most outstanding and best known pakhavaj artists. Balázs’s Indian classical music studies extend back more than a decade. He appears regularly on the Hungarian and international stages and has accompanied many big name Indian masters, while he has also demonstrated the unique craft of the pakhavaj during solo performances in India, Europe and Hungary. In 2023, he founded the first Indian music school in Hungary, the Ganapati Music School, and also released Hungary’s first rhythmic solo album of Indian classical music entitled Mridang Vadan. He is currently participating in the development of a new conservatory project at the Birla Institute of Technology And Science in Rajasthan as an expert in the pakhavaj and Indian music. He is assisting in the development of a methodology for students of the modern arts. Within the framework of a scholarship received from the Indian state, he studied for a year at the Sangeet Natak Akademi at Kathak Kendra, where he received first-class honours under the guidance of the pakhavaj master Shri Shashikant Pathak. Balázs is an experienced performer of Indian classical music as both a soloist and accompanying artist, and is equally adept at playing dance, vocal and instrumental Indian music.