I Smile at Life
Global
I Smile at Life
This programme is held in Hungarian.
For many years, the folk musician János Csík has been taking to the stage together with dramatic actor Áron Őze to create unique performances incorporating both music and literature. These programmes feature much more than poetry set to music or delivered in the traditional fashion, they also incorporate and intertwine influences from Hungarian folk and classical music, contemporary jazz, and other poetic forms. Joining us for these concerts will be cimbalom player Kálmán Balogh and saxophonist Mihály Dresch.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, we are paying tribute to the work of the poet and translator László Nagy with a programme that is both musical and literary. It will recall many aspects of his life and career: his connection to folk music through his translations of Bulgarian poetry, the depth of his Hungarian identity, the sensitivity that lives in his poetry, his openness to the world, and the sense of ‘Europeanness’ that he explored via the ‘Bartók model’. And it will also evoke the truths about life lived in his era, which he most aptly expressed in his own works incorporating the unique flavours of classical and jazz-influenced contemporary music powered by the soulful and sustaining power of Hungarian folk music. Projected as a backdrop on the stage will be Nagy’s own graphic works.
Featured artists
Éva Auksz – eMeRton Award-winning actress
Áron Őze – Jászai Mari Award-winning actor
Kálmán Balogh – Prima Primissima Award-winning cimbalom player
András Bognár – double-bassist
János Csík – Kossuth Prize-winning lead violinist and vocalist and founder of the Csík Band
Mihály Dresch – Kossuth Prize-winning saxophonist
Zsuzsanna Szabó Kocsis – Kazinczy Award-winning folk singer
Máté Vizeli – violinist and composer
Zoltán Nagy – sound engineer
László Göttinger – lighting technician
Director: Áron Őze
Photo credit: Borbála Réka Nagy
