SOLD-OUT - Suzanne Ciani (USA) I Dorina Takács & Fanni Zahár (HUN) I Nathalie Szende (HUN/GER)

Suzanne Ciani at the House of Music! The diva of diodes, one of the pioneers of electronic music, a major American synthesiser heroine, five-time Grammy Award-nominated composer and new age legend, will be performing in Hungary for the first time! Adding lustre to the evening will be an electronica-vocal-flute ‘seance’ with Dorina Takács and Fanni Zahár and an electroacoustic solo concert by Natalie Szende. The concerts will be preceded by a screening of the documentary Sisters with Transistors, a look at the female pioneers of electronic music. Admission to the screening is free of charge to anyone holding a ticket for the concerts.

8 pm Natalie Szende
8.30 pm Dorina Takács & Fanni Zahár
9.30 pm Suzanne Ciani

SUZANNE CIANI
Suzanne Ciani is a world-famous American musician and composer, a pivotal star of the contemporary electronic music scene. Born in Indiana on 4 June 1946, the young Ciani followed her passion and curiosity for music to the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a master’s degree in composition. It was there that she met the famous musical inventor Don Buchla, whose synthesiser bearing his name had a significant influence on Ciani’s work. The innovative use of this analog modular instrument plays a central role in her musical repertoire to this day. Her career began in the 1970s, when she moved to New York. As a performer, she combines elements of ambient, new age and neoclassical music with a perfect sense of proportion. She has released several albums, several of which, such as the breakthrough Seven Waves (1982) and The Velocity of Love (1986), are milestones in the genre. She has also gained recognition for her commercial work, creating iconic sound effects and music for advertisements, video games and films. Familiar sounds from pop culture, such as the famous Atari sound logo, the Xenon pinball machine and Coca-Cola’s pop-and-pour sound, are all Ciani’s work. Her contributions to music and technology have earned her numerous honours and recognitions (such as being inducted to Keyboard Magazine’s Hall of Fame, the Moog Innovation Award, the A2IM Independent Icon Award, the Golden Ear Award and the SEAMUS Award, as well as five Grammy nominations).

Today she remains a sought-after performer and educator, regularly sharing her knowledge and experience with the newest generation of musicians, and audiences around the world continue to flock to her captivating improvisational performances. Ciani’s work and output has had a significant impact not only on the music industry, but also on the entire art world, extending to the broader peripheral areas of both the arts and audio technology. She is one of the outstanding artists of our era.

DORINA TAKÁCS & ZAHÁR FANNI
Also known as Дeva, Dorina Takács is a composer, singer and performer from Budapest. The young artist burst onto the Hungarian popular music scene like a comet. She writes, produces and sings her own compositions, and even designs the album covers. Her unique music conveys the listener to an ancient realm, with songs distinguished by atmospheric soft sounds, silkily pulsating bass lines and polyphonic mantras drawn from the mystical world of Hungarian folk songs.

Flautist, saxophonist and producer Fanni Zahár is a a well-known musician of her age group, a member of and contributor to countless lineups as well as a DJ (under the name Zakharov). She regularly performs concerts with such projects as the Berlin-Hungarian afro/jazz-playing Ábáse, the Rotterdam-based Brintex Collective and the Swedish/German/ Hungarian all-female techno trio Lilith’s Rib, in addition to frequently joining Дeva’s band as a recurring guest. In the course of her travels, she has worked with such names as the Sun Ra Arkestra, Joe Armon Jones and Pat Thomas. For this evening, the two are jointly putting together a ceremony of process music that includes experimentation with ancient mantras and vocal/flute/electronic improvisations.

NATALIE SZENDE
Natalie Szende (or SZENDE) is an electroacoustic composer, actress and producer. After returning home to Budapest from Berlin in the autumn of 2023, she introduced herself to the Hungarian audience at the Gólya in November of last year, later performing at the Budapest Music Center as well. Her works have been presented in symphonic concert halls, theatres and cinemas, and she has performed herself in churches and clubs. As a composer, she creates hauntological fantasies by synthesising different performance contexts. Natalie is currently studying electronic composition at the Liszt Academy. Recently, she has worked on music for theatrical productions presented at Trafo and the Deutsche Theater. She has won a spot on the Telekom Electronic Beats ‘Szelektor’ talent development compilation.