Dances Across Centuries with Pianist Balázs Demény
Educational
Szervezés:
Dances Across Centuries with Pianist Balázs Demény
This programme is held in Hungarian.
Music and the natural movement it evokes are probably among the most ancient ritual manifestations of the human instinctive world. It is therefore not surprising that the history of Western classical music is interwoven with various dance forms, which in themselves already carry cultural identity. But is it really possible to dance to Frédéric Chopin’s mazurkas, or to a “death csárdás” written by Franz Liszt? And what makes a waltz become forgotten? Balázs Demény’s piano recital pairs different dances without being bound by periods, highlighting the points of connection that span centuries, thus creating a dialogue between past and present. In making these connections, we will be assisted by choreographer Csaba Horváth, who will also, in words, attempt to bring the world of the dances featured in the program closer to the audience.
Junior Prima Award-winning Balázs Demény was born in 1989 in Cluj-Napoca. He began his piano studies in his hometown, then from 2004 continued them at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music in Budapest, and from September 2009 at the Liszt Academy, in the class of András Kemenes. After obtaining his diploma with honors, he was admitted in first place to the doctoral school of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where he is currently still studying. He has participated in numerous prestigious masterclasses and festivals, working with artists such as György Kurtág, Zoltán Kocsis, Gábor Eckhardt, and Balázs Szokolay. As an orchestral soloist, he has given more than seventy performances and is currently the permanent resident soloist of the Dinu Lipatti State Philharmonic in Satu Mare. He is a prizewinner of several major competitions: he took first place at the international piano competitions Carl Filtsch (2013), Hans von Bülow (2015), Ile de France (2017) and Lagny-sur-Marne (2018), and second place at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Budapest.
Csaba Horváth is a choreographer and director, founder and leader of the Forte Company. After graduating from the Dance Academy, he became a soloist of the Honvéd Ensemble, then an artist of Tranzdanz and later of the Shaman Theatre. In 2005 he completed the choreography program at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, but even before that he had created important works that consistently won the more prestigious Hungarian and international festivals. His first independent choreography, Duhaj – in which he also danced – received the Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and also won the performers’ prize of the Veszprém All-Arts Festival. He regularly travels abroad as a guest choreographer, has worked several times in Boston at the American Repertory Theatre and in Oslo at Det Norske Teatret, and has also led courses in the drama department of Harvard University.
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The concerts of our Tuned to Piano program series can easily captivate those who are still far from the world of romantic piano literature, while they also hold new experiences for those who come to the House of Music Hungary as black-belt classical music fans.