House of Music Hungary Birthday Charity Evening

The House of Music will celebrate its third anniversary with a focus on social responsibility: we are organising a charity event and fundraiser with a selection of special appearances, mini-concerts and even a music history stand-up routine. The goal is to raise funds for three organisations: the Social and Rehabilitation Foundation, the Gézengúz Foundation and the Világítani Fogok Association. The full proceeds of all purchased tickets will be divided equally between the three organisations.

Can music be for everybody? The House of Music Hungary provides a positive response to this question through its inspired architectural form, transparency and openness. Our mission is also one of our slogans: Let's play music! Because music is an enjoyable, sociable and cooperative form of play that everyone can actively enjoy, whatever age they may be. This idea is also at the heart of our social responsibility work: to search for opportunities to connect with marginalised people – and the organisations that support them – so that they can experience the healing and creative power of music, with the emphasis not on our differences, but on how we influence each other.

This is why we will celebrate the third anniversary of our foundation by focusing on social responsibility with a charity event and fundraiser. Among many other things, the event will see the following items donated by prestigious artists go under the hammer. You can bid, for example, for Kátya Tompos's hat, Nemecsek's glass marble – designed by Miklós Vecsey – from the premiere of The Paul Street Boys, Miklós Lukács's sheet music – complete with his personal notes – Anna Pásztor's thigh-high boots, Bea Palya's custom-made exclusive-filled pendrive – full of exclusives – Szilvia Bognár's elegant dress, created by the theatre costumer designer Erzsébet Túri, a T-shirt and brooches from Mariann Falusi, one item from Emese Benczúr's HOPE objets d'art series, a painted portrait of Veronika Harcsa, self-made clothing from costume designer Fruzsina Nagy, a 2013 LGT photo album, a concert poster and stage pass from James Karácsony, and a two-year family Friends of the Museum membership for the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts.

The event will support the three organisations below, with the full proceeds of the entrance tickets divided equally between the three institutions.

The Social and Rehabilitation Foundation helps families and homeless people who are temporary struggling with challenging life situations, primarily in Budapest's 14th and 15th districts. The foundation provides temporary accommodation in two locations and an institution that offers rehabilitation services for homeless people. The foundation's main mission is to offer accommodation and a safe haven at its institutions for families in need and homeless people, as well as the chance for a new start. The institutional system provides accommodation for nearly 200 people – or 50 families – as well as child welfare and social support. It also runs a series of professional programmes to help identify long-lasting solutions to the problems of the people residing in the institutions. To date, the foundation has only been able to hold music education activities on one-off occasions during holiday periods. However, given the fundamental importance of nursery rhymes and song in musical education for children, the foundation would like to hold regular music and dance hall events.

The mission of the Gézengúz Foundation for Children with Birth Injuries is to recognise and provide assistance in physical and mental development for those children who require special therapeutic support due to premature birth or complications at birth. Ever since its inception, the Gézengúz Foundation has offered the widest possible range of available tools and therapeutic programmes in Hungary in this field. The foundation was also involved in music therapy activities in its early years, funded by voluntary support. The foundation would like to continue this work and expand its activities to include listening to music underwater in combination with movement, as in the foundation's experience this can greatly increase the speed of development. The foundation supports more than 2,500 children and families every year through a nationwide system of care. The organisation's goal is to provide families with healthcare, educational, psychological and social support.

The Világítani Fogok Association (I Will Shine Association) works to assist children and families dealing with trying circumstances in Kerecsend, one of Hungary's 300 poorest settlements. The association provides debt counselling, drug prevention, housing, sports and garden programmes, and job market mentoring. It also offers assistance provided by a developmental educator and child psychologist for children with latent development issues, support for healthy nutrition, public maintenance activities and, above all, family mentoring work for the first 1,000 days to improve the life chances of unborn children, where medication and vitamins are also provided for expectant mothers and young children. In the past year, families from Kerecsend have requested the assistance of the association in more than 1,000 different cases, while the association's members of staff provide unconditional love and acceptance for 140 children a year. Some elements of musical education have already been introduced at the Magyary Károly Primary School in Kerecsend. Children have long been provided with the opportunity to learn to play the piano. The association would also like to make it possible to learn percussion instruments and the guitar in school. The goal is to demonstrate the community-building power of playing music together, with the long-term objective of creating a band able to boost the self-respect and feeling of acceptance of the children involved. One of the founding principles of the House of Music's mission is to use the tools of music to help create a happier and healthier society. In our everyday lives and work, those of us who work here also experience every day something that has also been scientifically proven by researchers: people who have music in their lives – whether through listening or active involvement – not only live more joyfully, but also enjoy a series of cognitive and emotional benefits as they experience the melodies, rhythms and dynamic changes of music. This is why we believe it is important to transfer this joy to as many people as possible, with the help of this auction.

By buying a ticket for this event, you will be supporting three organisations:
1. The full proceeds of all purchased tickets will be divided equally between the three organisations.
2. Prestigious musicians have donated special records and personal items to the House of Music Hungary for charity purposes, and the public can bid for these items. The host for the evening will be the editor, presenter, journalist and auctioneer Nóra Winkler
3. The future plans of the three organisations include development projects linked to music that you can also bid to fund.

The auction process will be accompanied by a musical programme featuring prestigious artists and shows prepared especially for the occasion. We will soon publish the full list of performers! In the meantime, we can first mention the members of the fourth class of the House of Music's travelling educational programme, who will perform their own rendition of the Hungarian hit Ringasd el magad (Rock Yourself). There will also be an appearance from a band made up of House of Music employees, featuring both amateur and professional musicians who will display the very same level of enthusiasm as they showcase their love of music. We can also look forward to an appearance from a young performer who has made a full recovery from earlier issues with the help of the Gézengúz Foundation for Children with Birth Injuries. We will also see Árpád Tóth, the host of the House of Music's popular Lecture Cycle series, who will entertain the audience with his music history stand-up routine.