Liszt Academy Ovidius leaflet

OVID’S METAMORPHOSES SEVEN EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES RETUNE OVID 23 JUNE 2014 – 4 JULY 2014

PHOTO: PÉTER PUKLUS

Greetings

ANDREA VIGH

Welcome to the first Erasmus Intensive Programme organised by the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, titled “Ovid’s Metamorphoses birth of Europe in new musical compositions”. It is my pleasure that after an extensive reconstruction project, we can host this exciting multinational workshop in the beautifully restored main building of the Liszt Academy. Having gained considerable experience in working with foreign students and organizing international workshops we were eager to utilize Liszt Academy’s creativity and experience in this challenging, large-scale project. The Ovid’s Metamorphoses Erasmus Intensive Programme unites students and professors from all over Europe to work and create together inspired

by Ovid’s eternal stories from the Metamorphoses. I am convinced that the unique atmosphere of this multidisciplinary project will reflect the cultural and artistic diversity of the continent enabling the exploration of similarities and differences between the music and drama schools of Europe.

Dr. Andrea Vigh President of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music

What if Ovid’s famous stories from the age of the Roman Empire met the music of the 21st century? What do these stories say to the young composers of our times? Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli and Richard Strauss are among many others in the history of music who had been inspired by these timeless stories, and set examples on how composers can speak to their audiences in their own times in their own musical languages.

Do we know how to speak to our audience now in the 21st century? Do those immortal questions and human tragedies that Ovid delineated two thousand years ago still resonate with the audience of our times? These are the questions that I am interested in and hoping to get answers for during our Erasmus Intensive Programme. I believe our tradition can bring nations together in Europe today and help us realize how we are all connected regardless of differences in language and musical background. This is what our Intensive Programme is about.

Dr. Gyula Fekete Head of the Composition Department Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music

GYULA FEKETE

Concept of the Ovid’ Metamorphoses Erasmus Intensive Programme The Ovid’s Metamorphoses Erasmus Intensive Programme in Budapest is an international project with the participation of seven European Art Universities. The concept of the project is actively influenced by students and professors from different artistic fields, such as composition, instrumental, conductor and drama. During the project they work together on 10 short dramatic pieces of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in order to create contemporary interpretations based on the selected stories. The drama pieces will translate the ancient myths to the modern language through minimalism, and through the energy of dramatic gestures.

Myths are important in every human’s life. Myths connect citizens of a country or a region; telling stories is the basis for thinking and communicating in society. As kids, we grow up listening to these ancient stories, and that helps us to understand each other. Myths can be interpreted on many levels; firstly on a historical level, secondly on a symbolic-allegoric level, and thirdly, according to Jung, on the level of the collective subconscious; myths recall several pictures and associations from our minds.

Myth and contemporary music unite in drama performances; and this way a totally new medium presents the abstract music and the symbolical text. Consequently theatre aspects lift the quality of the understanding of contemporary music to another level. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, these short stories are the basis for the European culture not just because they sum up the entire European existence, from the creation of the world, through great mythological stories to the historical heroes, but because it creates a basis for European culture, as the essence of the stories point at what it is like to be a European citizen today: fragility of existence, the incomprehensive reality, constant metamorphosis. Ovid was able to sense with his exceptional sensibility what it is like to be a European, what are the problems of the typical European in life. In a certain way Ovid was the psychiatrist of Europe.

Not surprisingly every artist of every age was inspired by his stories.

The 21st century produces massive amount of minor myths which can be followed in the magazines, on television and in Hollywood movies as well.

We wonder how the artists of the new generation can define themselves in Ovid’s ancient stories.

Prof. András Almási-Tóth and Prof. Gyula Fekete, artistic directors of the Erasmus Intensive Programme

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The participating institutions

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The Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) – Belgium The Royal Conservatory of Brussels was founded in 1832. Many important musicians were trained here under the direction of composers such as FrançoisJoseph Fétis, François-Auguste Gevaert and Joseph Jongen. The conservatory was also the heart of the famous Franco-Belgian violin school with teachers such as Henri Wienawski, Henri Vieuxtemps, Jenő Hubay and Eugène Ysaÿe. In 1967, the Royal Conservatory of Brussels was split into Flemish and French-speaking institutions. The Flemish part, the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel belongs today to the Erasmus University College. The concert hall of the Conservatory building is famous for its acoustics, its elegant interior and its monumental organ, and plays an important role in the social and cultural life of Brussels.

The Academy of Music in Krakow (Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie) – Poland After its foundation in 1898, the institution has been transformed into a state-run school of music in 1945.

In 1979, when the widely acclaimed composer Prof.

Krzysztof Penderecki was appointed Rector, it became an Academy of Music. His mission was to lead the Academy to become an important centre of musical education in Central Europe. He attracted many eminent specialists from Poland and abroad and the Academy has become receptive to modern ideas and movements in art and science. The Academy provides training in BA, MA and doctoral studies in all classical instruments, theory of music, conducting, music therapy, and has special faculties such as contemporary and jazz music, church music. The university organises the International Penderecki Cello Competition, the International Flute Competition and the Summer Academy of Music.

Conservatory Luigi Cherubini (Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini) – Firenze, Italy The origin of the conservatory goes back to the 18th century; it was named after the renowned composer Luigi Cherubini, a great Florentine master in 1923.

The Library contains very important sources, such as one reference manuscript of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte”, and owns some prestigious instruments (Stradivari , Adami, Cristofori, the Medicean Viola, wind instruments, etc.). Nowadays, it is one of the leading national Music academies, with all classical, jazz and computer music classes in all three cycles, and cooperates in many international programs with 27 partners throughout Europe, Asia and USA. They organise more than 300 musical events each year inviting students, teachers, guest artists.

Conservatory Santa Cecilia (Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia) – Roma, Italy The birth of the music school is attributed to Giovanni Sgambati, internationally acclaimed piano player and composer, a student of Franz Liszt and Ettore Pinelli violinist. After the official acknowledgement of the Music High School in 1875, the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia was founded in 1923. Legendary composition professors such as Respighi, Pizzetti, Petrassi, Mortari made the composition faculty and Franco Ferrara the orchestral conducting famous all over the world. Currently the Conservatorio as one of the leading Italian institutions offers a wide range of BA and MA education programmes covering all orchestral and keyboard instruments and a degreeprogramme in chamber music as well. Trainings are also available in piano accompaniment, early music, electroacoustic music and jazz.

The University of Arts Târgu-Mureş (Universitatea de Arte din Târgu-Mureș, Marosvásárhelyi Művészeti Egyetem) – Romania The University of Arts Târgu-Mureş (UAT) located in the heart of Transylvania has an outstanding reputation in the Romanian artistic life. With an intellectual heritage of 66 years and its essential contribution to the development of an artistic elite in Romania UAT has been continuously diversifying its educational offer. Currently it has training programmes in graduate, master and doctoral studies for actors, puppeteers, directors, choreographers, multimedia experts, cultural managers, playwrights, theatre critics, designers, music teachers. The mission of UAT is to ensure multicultural and multilingual conversation between Romanian and Hungarian cultures in order to carry out teaching and creation based on equality. UAT has a theatre and a puppet theatre with professional artistic repertories in every season. Every year it organizes a Media Conference and a Theatre Studies Conference.

The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem) – Hungary Throughout the 139 years of its history the institution has propagated the Liszt inheritance: that of the greatest performer of the 19th century, the avant-garde composer and the unique integrating personality. What does this mean? The highest calibre of teaching and the continuous nurturing of traditions. The greatest 20th century Hungarian innovators, Bartók, Dohnányi, Weiner, Kodály, Ligeti and Kurtág, all embodied this spirit and are intimately linked to the Liszt Academy.

The institution offers complete bachelor and master curriculums covering the full range of musical professions: performance, conducting, composition, and music-pedagogy based on the Kodály concept.

The Academy and its music palace’s concert halls melded into a new unity after three years of reconstruction works in 2013 when the new concert organising branch, christened the Liszt Academy Concert Centre was born.

Academy of Dramatic Arts, (Akademija Dramske Umjetnosti) – Zagreb, Croatia Academy of Dramatic Arts, Zagreb is the premier drama school in Croatia providing university level education for all types of professions related to theatre, television and film production including actors, directors, cinematographers and film editors.

Currently, the Academy has about 300 students in nine different departments – dramaturgy, film and TV directing, acting, theatre directing and broadcasting, editing, production, cinematography, contemporary dance and ballet pedagogy. Together with other art academies: the Zagreb Academy of Music (which is the oldest and largest higher education institution of music in Croatia) and the Academy of Fine Arts they regularly create various art performances, making Zagreb one of the renowned art universities of Europe.

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Directors’ Concepts AND PROFILE Éva Patkó, director of the dramatic pieces Pygmalion, The Death of Orpheus, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus All three stories are focusing on human desire, but each story shows different faces of the same emotion. These extreme feelings transform the ones who feel them, just like love transforms each and every one of us. Man and woman meet in a forever transforming way in all three stories. In Salmacis and Hermaphroditus the key emotion is lust, the unstoppable desire to physically possess the wanted one with or without consent. This forced union will have its consequences, for posterity to remember. Pygmalion tells about the longing for pure love and untainted union with the loved one. The sculptor Pygmalion desiring this kind of love symbolises that artists are those fortunate human beings who are capable of creating purity with their art. In the third story, the human desire unveils a dark aspect: the eternal pursue to eliminate the one who is different from us, who stands for its own beliefs.

In this case Orpheus was ripped to shreds while playing his music, but even with his annihilation, his art remains eternal.

Borna Baletić, director of the dramatic pieces Daphne, Narcissus and Echo, Pyramus and Thysbe, Callisto Love, Death, Desire, Lust, Solitude, Life, Hatred. Life is Death, Death is Love. The game of Nature overflows all the senses. Creating and being in the stories of Ovid’s Metamorphoses throws us into a world of Love and Life, deeply connected with the Nature and with the essence of the Game called Life. A wise Man said once that tragedy is born out of music. The students’ task is to create drama performance through music composed by their colleagues from all over Europe. They have to understand the music heard for the first time and decode the message it brings.

The Game that we create will assume its final shape on the stage of the Liszt Academy. Daphne is craving for loneliness, searching for purity in the woods, but in the same time she is chased by the love of the God who cannot resist her. Callisto is seduced and later embodied on the night sky, unable to wash her sins off. She pays for her sin: being beautiful. Pyramus and Thysbe run away in search of love and then punished for their hybris. Narcissus, not being able to love or not wanting to love another human being, is cursed and pushed into “unnatural love“. Love, lust, hate, and sin… Themes that created our culture, our beliefs, and themes that are immortal as Nature itself.

Stories that force us to applause with awe and humility the great Poet and his Philosophy.

András Almási-Tóth, director of the dramatic pieces Acis and Galathea, Orpheus and Eurydice, Phylemon and Baucis The contrast between the role myths had in ancient times and today is fascinating for me: while their influence is still noticeable there was a time they were inseparable from everyday life. Nowadays their reinterpreted impact is not articulated in high art anymore but rather in pop and trash culture. During the course of history myths became the exiles of high art and found refuge in the different forms and shapes of pop art. This evolution also affected myths themselves: they cast down their antique characteristics and assumed a new way of presence in the stories of tabloid media. In the same time we can’t disregard the features of the stories Hollywood and the mainstream media either: their tales and sagas revive the same ancient elements over and over again while high art in its ivory tower became the instrument of separation and detachment. I think Ovid’s stories reflect this phenomenon perfectly.

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Éva Patkó director, The University of Arts Târgu-Mureş Éva Patkó belongs to the young generation of directors in Romania.

She worked in several theatres across Romania, directing world premiere contemporary plays (András Visky’s The Escape or Zsolt Láng’s The Winter Garden), but also classic authors (Shakespeare, Garcia Lorca, Szép Ernő, Mrozek). At Chicago`s Theatre Y she directed András Visky’s Porn, a play reflecting on communism, presented for the first time in the United States. She directs courses and master classes at UAT, and at UC Berkeley Theater Department California, as well as theatre workshops in SaintPetersburg, Alexandria, Budapest etc. Her performances have been invited to several national and international festivals. She teaches at the University of Arts in Targu Mures (UAT) since 2009, becoming a full time lecturer in 2012. Her current directorial focus is the relationship between audience and performer.

Borna Baletić director, dean of the Academy of Dramatic Arts, Zagreb Borna Baletić, the dean of the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb has a degree in Comparative literature and philosophy, as well as in dramatic arts. He has been the director of more than forty theatre performances, ballet and opera productions in various professional theatres in Croatia.

He joined the Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1999, became full professor in 2010 and was appointed as a Dean and a Senate member in 2012.

His international experience includes being a guest professor at the Ohio University, USA, a guest lecturer at the Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, a membership in the Theatre Directors’ Association and Directors’ Guild of Great Britain, and directing abroad. He has been one of 18 European directors elected for taking part in the European Directors’ School, organized by The West Yorkshire Playhouse.

András Almási-Tóth, associate professor, director Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music András Almási-Tóth graduated from the faculty of theatre direction of the University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest in 1997, where he also taught till 2011 and earned his doctorate degree in 2006. His dissertation Opera: Music/Man/Theatre formed the basis of a successful textbook.

He held workshops at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst at Frankfurt and the Conservatorio di Musica “Luigi Cherubini” in Florence. Between 1998-2003 he taught acting at the vocal and opera department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where he returned in 2009 as the head of the opera programme to teach drama and produce the opera exam series.

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COMPOSITION PEOFESSORS’ PROFILE Karol Nepelski, professor of The Academy of Music in Krakow Studied composition at the Academy of Music in Krakow in the class of Marek Stachowski, he obtained a MA degree with distinction in the composition class of Zbigniew Bujarski, and he is currently studying for his PhD with Krzysztof Penderecki. In 2005 he became the student of the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Stuttgart and received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in recognition of his outstanding achievements in his studies. In 2008 he was awarded the first prize in the Marek Stachowski National Composers’ Competition. His works include audio-video creations as well as performance art. His compositions have been presented by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lviv Philharmonic, Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra in Cracow and at numerous festivals in Poland and abroad.

Riccardo Riccardi, head of the Composition Department Conservatory Santa Cecilia Riccardo Riccardi was born in 1954 in Rimini where he studied piano with Guido Zangheri. His early education included Italian classes with Carlo Alberto Balducci who had also taught Federico Fellini. He studied composition in Florence at the Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini with Pier Luigi Zangelmi and Carlo Prosperi. He earned his doctorate in architecture in 1981 and his degree in composition in 1982. His Concerto for Violin and Orchestra received the Composer’s Award at the 21st Southwestern Youth Music Festival. From 1988 till 1991 he led radio programs at the Spanish National Radio (RNE) and RAI. Texts from writers such as Pessoa, Schnitzler, Rilke, and D.H. Lawrence have inspired him for song cycles and operas.

Paolo Furlani, professor of Conservatory Luigi Cherubini He graduated in clarinet, choral music, wind band orchestration and composition from the Venice Conservatory. He studied electronic music and also graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.

Paolo Furlani has composed eleven operas. El roverso won 1st prize at “City of Udine 1995”; Le parole al buio (Words in the Darkness) from Paolo Puppa won 1st prize at the international contest “Orpheus 1998” in Spoleto. His award-winning project for a musical show entitled La casa dei mostri (The House of Monsters) was staged in 2003 by La Fenice Theatre of Venice.

He won 2nd prize at the International Verdi Opera Competition (2001) and 1st prize at the “Wiener Internationaler Kompositionswettbewerb 2000” (chairman: Claudio Abbado).

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Jan Van Landeghem, professor of The Royal Conservatory of Brussels Jan Van Landeghem studied organ, harpsichord, piano accompaniment, choir and orchestra conducting, music theory and composition at Brussels and Maastricht Conservatories. Together with his wife, Jenny Spanoghe he is the founder of the “Summercourse for Strings and Composers” at Nazaré, Portugal. He won more than 15 composition prizes in Europe and abroad, lectured at the Universities and Conservatories of Prague, Brno, Hiroshima, Georgia State USA, Gent, Montréal, Cracovia, Bologna etc. Van Landeghem gave recitals in most European countries, Asia and the USA. Selected as Fulbright Scholar he taught at Georgia State University. He wrote more than 150 works and arrangements on commissions.

Gyula Fekete, head of the Composition Department Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music Gyula Fekete received a doctorate in Composition from Northwestern University, USA in 1996, and a Masters degree from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University in 1993. Fekete also has a diploma in composition and theory from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. The sought-after composer is also the recipient of many awards including the 1996 William T. Faricy Award, and the Fulbright grant. The Redeemed Town by Fekete won its category’s award of the Hungarian State Opera’s competition in 2000. He wrote Excelsior! Liszt Ferenc Goes to Heaven for the Liszt bicentennial in 2011. Fekete received the Erkel Prize in 2001, and the Bartók – Pásztory Prize in 2012.

Performers of the Composition Professors’ Concert: ZAK Ensemble The ZAK Ensemble was founded in 2013 as the contemporary music group of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. The members of the group changes year by year as the musicians are current students of the Academy and its doctoral school. The ZAK Ensemble performed several concerts last year as part of the EU supported New Music: New Audiences project. Within the project they performed pieces by Hungarian composers as well as Hungarian premieres of contemporary composers from Iceland, England, France, Ireland, Austria and Poland. The artistic director and program manager of the ZAK Ensemble is Balázs Horváth, composer, conductor, senior lecturer of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.

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Other Programmes

Ovid’s Metamorphoses Closing Concert

Monday 23 June 2014 / 14.00 Cupola Hall Ovid’s stories Lecture of Prof. György Karsai, University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest

4 July 2014 /19.00 Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall OVID RETUNED

Sunday 29 June 2014 / 19.00 Cupola Hall Composition professors’ concert Karol Nepelski: Circlesong Riccardo Riccardi: Concerto per pianoforte e gruppo da camera Jan Van Landeghem: Sei Aforismi Fekete Gyula: Suraki Paolo Furlani: Il colore dei numeri ZAK Ensemble (Budapest): Judit Nagy - flute Zsolt Bartek – clarinet Eszter Osztrosits - violin Péter Tornyai - violin Andor Jobbágy - viola Tamás Zétényi - cello Zsolt Birtalan - piano Conductor: Balázs Horváth

Actors from Zagreb, Croatia: Dajana Čuljak, Martina Čvek, Nikola Baće Luka Bulović Actors from Târgu-Mureş, Romania: Chereghi Ioana Mirela, Blanka Boglárka Moldován, Stan Andrei Dorel, Károly Kovács

PART One Director: András Almási-Tóth Adrien Tsilogiannis (Brussels): Acis and Galathea Gabriela Opacka (Krakow) violin Krisztina Baksa (Budapest) cello Balázs Rumy (Budapest) clarinet Emma Van den Ecker (Brussels) horn Tamás Pregun (Budapest) piano Conductor: Nicolas Taboulot (Brussels) Nicola Menci (Florence): Orpheus and Eurydice Gabriela Opacka (Krakow) violin Krisztina Baksa (Budapest) cello Balázs Rumy (Budapest) clarinet Emma Van den Ecker (Brussels) horn Shino Hattori (Budapest) piano Conductor: Farhad G. Mahani (Florence) Domenico Turi (Rome): Phylemon and Baucis Gabriela Opacka (Krakow) violin Krisztina Baksa (Budapest) cello Balázs Rumy (Budapest) clarinet Emma Van den Ecker (Brussels) horn Míra Nagy (Budapest) piano Conductor: Daniele Moroni (Rome)

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PART Two

PART Three

Director: Borna Baletić

Director: Éva Patkó

Mateusz Zastawny (Krakow): Daphne Mária Kerner (Budapest) flute Bálint Fábry (Budapest) bassoon Dénes Ludmány (Budapest) viola Csongor Jobbágy (Budapest) double bass Carlos Emilio Lopez Luiz (Budapest) piano Conductor: Maciej Koczur (Krakow)

Balogh Máté (Budapest): The Death of Orpheus Anna Mohay (Budapest) cello Csaba Pálfi (Budapest) clarinet Gionata Giro (Florence) trumpet Zalán László Kovács (Budapest) tuba Luca Bloise (Rome) percussion Conductor: Péter Dobszay (Budapest)

Péter Tornyai (Budapest): Narcissus and Echo Mária Kerner (Budapest) flute Bálint Fábry (Budapest) bassoon Dénes Ludmány (Budapest) viola Csongor Jobbágy (Budapest) double bass Carlos Emilio Lopez Luiz (Budapest) piano Conductor: Péter Dobszay (Budapest)

Rouzbeh Rafie (Rome): Pygmalion Bernadett Adelina Puskás (Budapest) cello Csaba Pálfi (Budapest) clarinet Gionata Giro (Florence) trumpet Zalán László Kovács (Budapest) tuba Luca Bloise (Rome) percussion Conductor: Daniele Moroni (Rome)

Philippe Lamouris (Brussels): Pyramus and Thysbe Réka Nemes (Budapest) flute Jákob Betterman (Budapest) bassoon Tamás Fazekas (Budapest) viola Péter Robinik (Budapest) double bass Mireia Frutos Fernandez (Budapest) piano Conductor: Nicolas Taboulot (Brussels)

Jarosław Płonka (Krakow): Salmacis and Hermaphroditus Bernadett Adelina Puskás (Budapest) cello Csaba Pálfi (Budapest) clarinet Gionata Giro (Florence) trumpet Zalán László Kovács (Budapest) tuba Luca Bloise (Rome) percussion Conductor: Maciej Koczur (Krakow)

Alberto Meli (Florence): Callisto Réka Nemes (Budapest) flute Jákob Betterman (Budapest) bassoon Tamás Fazekas (Budapest) viola Péter Robinik (Budapest) double bass Marcell Szabó (Budapest) piano Conductor: Farhad G. Mahani (Florence)

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Participating institutions:

The supporter of the Ovid’s Metamorphoses Erasmus Intensive Programme:

Supporters of ZAK Ensemble:

Hungarian Composers’ Union

Publisher: Dr. Andrea VIGH, President of the Liszt Academy Editor-in-chief: Imre SZABÓ STEIN Layout: ALLISON Advertising Photos: István BIRÓ, Andrea FELVÉGI, Judit MARJAI, Péter PUKLUS Commissioned by the Communications Directorate of the Liszt Academy with the cooperation of the Department of International Affairs and Development Finalized: 17 June 2014 Liszt Academy (1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 8.)

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