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April 5, Washington, DC: Second Annual Hungarian Festival Join the DC-area Hungarian-Americans for a fun day at the Hungarian Festival! Hungarian food: Sausage, Liverwurst, Fried Bread “Lángos”, Homemade Desserts. Live music all day by excellent musicians. Hungarian folk dance show at 3:00 p.m. A traditional mustache competition & mom-daughter beauty contest! Crafts & fun activities for kids; led by the Hungarian Scouts of Washington, DC. [download the flyer] April 5th, 2014 from 11:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m. PERFORMERS:
Entry fees: Adults: $15 Children 3-12: $5 Under 3: free 5/6/2012 - AHF Presents: Magos Band comes to Washington, D.C. on May 6, 2012! A Hungarian Folk Music Concert followed by Dance Party! Last year’s co-winners of the highly competitive FOLKBEATS Hungarian nationwide talent search competition, the Magos Band, is coming to America! “Magos” is one of Hungary’s brightest and upcoming bands in the Hungarian folk music scene. They are a part of the generation of folk musicians who may be the last links to the line of great masters of folk music who lived and preserved folk music for centuries, in the remotest villages of Hungary and Transylvania. [read more] 9/22/2011 - AHF Presents: “Tiszta Szív” Girls School Choir from Kovászna County (now in Rumania). An unforgettable concert! Enjoy the voice of angels singing compositions of world famous composers such as: G. P. di Palestrina, Franz Schubert, Zoltán Kodály, László Halmos, Béla Bartók, and Luca Marenzio. The concert is free. However, your donations to support the choir are much appreciated! [read more] 6/8/2011 - AHF Presents: The AHF Cultural Committee sponsors night of Transylvanian Folk Music with Heveder! We are proud to announce that the genuine, virtuoso, EMKE Award-winning Heveder Folk Music Band from Transylvania has finally come to America!The group, accompanied by two of Hungary’s most respected folkdance performers Irén Deffend and Flórián Hajdú, wowed the audience at the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church in Bethesda, MD on June 1, 2011. [read more] AHF's Vasile Beluska, Professor of Violin, Bowling Green State University... performs at the 6th Annual Hungarian Charity Ball in Washington, DC. Transylvanian-born violinist Vasile Béluska graduated with honors from the School of Music and the G. Dima Music Conservatory in Kolozsvár, (Cluj) now in Rumania. He earned a Master’s degree from Southern Methodist University and later became a member of the Class of Jascha Heifetz in Los Angeles. He received the "Award for National Service" from the AHF at the American Hungarian Federation Gala in New Jersey in 2005 in support of Father Csaba Bojte and the Hungarian Schools in the Csango Region. Professor Beluska, who serves as Cultural Advisor for the AHF, also performed at the event. Prof. Beluska was also honored with an Ellis Island Medal of Honor (the second AHF member to be so honored. Former AHF President Stefan Fedor was the first) for his help of other musicians from Eastern Europe come to the U.S. and develop their own careers. [read more] AHF Member Steve Bognar is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and 2010 Oscar Nominee for "The Last Truck," a documentary about the closing of a General Motors plant in Moraine Ohio. He is the son of a proud father and AHF Scholarship Committee Chair, Bela Bognar, a.k.a., "Professor Paprika." All four of Steven Bognar's films premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. 4/2/2010 - AHF Presents: April 1, 2010 - The Soviet Story: American Hungarian Federation Co-Sponsors Screening of “The Soviet Story” (Washington, D.C.). On April 1, 2010, AHF co-sponsored the screening of the award winning documentary, “The Soviet Story.” The riveting film tells the story of the Soviet regime and its unspeakable crimes, such as the Great Famine in Ukraine, the Katyn massacre and the medical experiments in the Gulag. The film also describes the collaboration between Stalin’s Soviet Union and Hitler’s Nazi Germany up until the time Germany invaded the Soviet Union, a collaboration often ignored or forgotten. [read more] 7/11/2009 - AHF Presents: An extraordinary performance of the Tükrös Folk Band and Folkdance Ensemble. The concert will raise funds for the benefit of the sister Church of Dicsőszentmárton in Transylvania. More information will be available about the Dicsőszentmárton Church at the concert. The Tükrös Hungarian Folk Ensemble was founded in 1986 and today is one of Hungary’s most respected revival folk bands. They specialize in collecting authentic folk music from remote villages of Hungary and Transylvania, and from archival recordings, preserving and presenting this music in its most authentic form yet in a style most entertaining and suitable for all audiences. While they play folk music from all the areas of Hungary, their focus is on the areas of Szatmár (North-East of Hungary) and Mezőség (Transylvania). In the August of 2001 the ensemble received the Award of Young Masters of Folk Art from the Minister of the Cultural Heritage. [read more] New Brunswick, NJ: 05/12//2008 - AHF Presents: July 12, 2008 - The Gázsa Folk Music Band and Táncház The Gázsa Hungarian Folk Ensemble was formed in 1992 by some of the best folk musicians in Hungary who have spent years studying and learning authentic village music from famous masters of folk music, who, in most cases, lived in remote rural areas. The band takes its name from the leader’s nick-name, István Papp. He was born and raised in Transylvania and has played with many ‘giants’ of Hungarian folk music. A graduate of the Conservatory of Music, Kolozsvár (Cluj), Gázsa was influential in starting and providing music for the first Táncház (community folkdance event) in Kolozsvár while he was a student. This was a significant step, since this folk-revival movement offered the basic impulse to hundreds of young musicians to learn and preserve authentic folk music of the Carpathian Basin. [read more] 11/21/2007 - "Year of Culture - Hungary, 2009" - Hungary is planning to present a cultural program in the United States in 2009, titled “Year of Culture-Hungary.” Hungarian ambassador Ferenc Simonyi met with representatives of various Hungarian organizations, including AHF, at the embassy in Washington, to announce the program and to obtain feedback from Hungarian-American organizations. [read more] AHF's Csaba
Teglas play in New York! The theatrically irreverent will again
be on display when The Bad Plays Festival returns
for its second year. From Sept. 10-30, theatregoers will able to witness
some of New York's most outrageous and adventurous productions. Housed
at the Players Theatre, The Bad Plays Festival
will feature six themed evenings in rotation, presenting short works ranging
from politically incorrect satire to over-the-top solo performances. | Get involved! Join AHF and serve on the Cultural Affairs Committee!
AHF is an all volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit, 501(C)(3) educational and charitable organization serving the community since 1906. We need your support! Join online! Need more information? [Contact us!] Other Events and News 10/22/2011 - MUSIC LOVERS WORLDWIDE CELEBRATE 200th BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF FERENC LISZT Ferenc (Franz) Liszt, composer, virtuoso pianist, Hungarian patriot, citizen of the world, was born 200 years ago, on October 22, 1811, in Doborjan, Hungary. His father, Adam, a musician and an employee of the Esterhazy family, was Hungarian, his mother was Austrian. Adam Liszt played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar; he knew Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven personally. At age six, young Ferenc began listening to his father's piano playing and showed interest in music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Ferenc began composing at the age of eight. At age nine, he appeared at concerts in Sopron and Pozsony. After those concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Ferenc's musical education abroad. Washington, DC: INVITATION Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 2pm in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Program includes works by Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Granados, Albeniz, and Benabdeljalil. [read more] 7/11/2011 - Conductor Ivan Fischer Receives England's Royal Philharmonic Society's 2011 Award! The Hungarian conductor wowed audiences this year with a Beethoven Symphony cycle that alternated the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a period instrument ensemble, with his own modern-instrument Budapest Festival Orchestra. The Takacs Quartet was also honored by the Royal Philharmonic Society, for excellence in live performance in 2011. The Quartet was singled out for the Chamber Music and Song Award for a Beethoven cycle at the Southbank that the jury described as a "tour de force." [read more] 7/11/2011 - Kosztolanyi's 'Skylark' Is Highlighted By Time Magazine... The July 11, 2011 issue of Time Magazine devotes six pages to a compilation titled "Pack Your (Book) Bag." The magazine asked 23 contemporary writers to recommend not well known but significant books to read. Deborah Eisenberg (most recent book is "The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg") recommended Dezso Kosztolanyi's novel, "Skylark." ("Pacsirta") [read more] 2/9/2011 - The Ambassador of Hungary requests the pleasure of your company at a concert celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian Composer and Pianist Ferenc Liszt by the
Hubay Concert Ensemble. Embassy of Hungary,
2950 Spring of Freedom Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008 FISCHER CONDUCTS THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY... Ivan Fischer, Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra will conduct the orchestra in January, 2010, as well as in April and in June. During January 21-23, Fischer will conduct Mahler’Das Lied von der Erde, with soloists tenor Stig Anderson and mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotjin. During January 28-30, Fischer conducts Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Lensky’s Aria, the cello soloist in those concerts is Mischa Maisky. During Easter week, April 1-3, Maestro Fischer will conduct Bach’s Mass in B minor. In June, Fischer will conduct Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. For tickets and further information, call 800-844-1324, or 202 467 4600. THE GYŐR NATIONAL BALLET PERFORMS IN NEW YORK CITY... The internationally known Győr National Ballet will perform in New York City in late January, at the Joyce Theater. The performances will be during January 26-31; the company will perform two Stravinsky ballets, The Rite of Spring, and Petrushka. For tickets and further information, see www.joyce.org. Tickets start at $10.00! Help spread the word: Print and pass out the [brochure] 1/5/10 -- Kati Marton Interviewed on the PBS Newshour - Margaret Warner interviewed author Kati Marton about her latest book, “Enemies of the People” in which she describes the arrest of her parents, journalists Ilona and Endre Marton during the Cold War period in Budapest. In preparation for the book, she researched the Hungarian secret police files on her family. To view the interview, click here. Buy her book on AHF's Amazon Store! “THE ECONOMIST’ ON MADACH’S ‘THE TRAGEDY OF MAN’ In its holiday edition, “The Economist” magazine (London), published a long essay, titled “Why is the modern view of progress so impoverished?” The opening paragraph of the article quotes extensively from Imre Madach’s play, “Az ember tragediaja,” – “The Tragedy of Man.” The closing paragraphs of the essay also end with quotations from the play. The magazine also provides references to the English translation of Madach’s play. [Read the article.] The Hungarian Electronic Library provides a Hungarian version of "The Tragedy of Man." Washington, DC: Iván Fischer Conducts Tchaikovsky – April 16-18, 2009 Iván Fischer, the National Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, returns to the stage of the Kennedy Center concert hall April 16-18, 2009. Fischer will conduct Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, and the composer’s Violin Concerto, with Leonidas Kavakos, soloist. Also on the program is a new work by American composer Daniel Kellogg, titled “Western Skies.” The new work was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are available by phone, 202 467-4600. March 20 - July 5, 2009: Washington, D.C.: Hungarian Women Photographers, 1910-1946 The National Museum of Women in the Arts hosts an exhibit of Hungarian women photographers, during the 1910-1946 period. The exhibition explores the career of women photographers, from those who often filled the positions of male photographers who joined military service to those who dedicated their work to the pursuit of social justice by disseminating images of the poor during the economic crisis of the 1920’s. The museum is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW., Washington, DC; telephone 202 783-5000. HUNGARIAN CONDUCTOR GERGELY VAJDA CONDUCTS THE FAIRFAX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – MARCH 14, 2009... The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra is nearing the conclusion of its search for a new music director. After an extensive two-year search, six finalists have been identified. Current plans call for the announcement of the selection in June 2009. One of the six finalists is Hungarian conductor Gergely Vajda, 35, a graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Vajda has served as the resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony and as assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Gergely Vajda will conduct the Fairfax Symphony on March 14, 2009 at 8 p.m., at the George Mason University Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. The program includes Liszt’s Les Preludes, Bartok’s Piano Concerto No.3, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. Vajda has selected the young pianist, Andrew Armstrong, to play Bartok’s 3rd Piano Concerto. Tickets may be purchased at 1-888-945-2468; special 20% discounts may be purchased [George Mason University] Washington, DC: IVÁN FISCHER CONDUCTS BARTÓK AT THE KENNEDY CENTER - FEBRUARY 5-7, 2009 Iván Fischer returns to Washington, to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, on February 5, 6, and 7. The February 5, Thursday performance starts at 7 p.m., the Friday and Saturday performances will start at 8 p.m. The program includes Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7. Fischer is the National Symphony’s Principal Conductor. His next performance with the NSO is scheduled for April 16-18, 2009. For tickets, call 202-467-4600 or online with the National Symphony Orchestra. Washington, DC: WORLD PREMIERE OF GYÖRGY KURTÁG’S NEW WORK: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS –FEBRUARY 7, 2009 György Kurtág, one of the world’s foremost composers, will perform the world premiere of his Hommage à Bartók for Two and Four Hands, at the Library of Congress, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 7, 2009, in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. The new work was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, and it is a tribute to fellow composer Béla Bartók. The concert is part of “Extremely Hungary 2009,” a yearlong festival showcasing contemporary Hungarian visual, performing and literary arts at leading cultural institutions in New York and Washington throughout 2009. Kurtág and his wife Márta will perform the new work, as well as selections from his “Játékok, and his “6 Moments Musicaux.” The Keller Quartet will perform Bartók’s Fifth Quartet, a 1935 Coolidge Foundation commission. This is the Kurtágs’ first visit to the United States. For tickets, contact TicketMaster at 202-397-SEAT; each ticket carries a nominal service charge of $2.75 and additional charges for phone orders. For more information, See the [Library of Congress] New Biography of Ervin Nyiregyhazi... The October 14-20, 2007 edition of “Book World,” the weekly supplement to The Washington Post, published a lengthy, full page review of a new biography of Ervin Nyiregyhazi, the unorthodox Hungarian musical genius (1903-1987). [read more] Iván Fischer returns to Washington in November, conducts
National Symphony... Recently appointed as the National Symphony
Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor, Iván Fischer returns
to Washington in November to conduct two concerts early in the month. 7/24/2007 - Cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs dies at 74 Laszlo Kovacs, one of Hollywood's most influential and respected directors of photography, died Saturday night in his sleep. He was 74. [read more] 7/17/2007 - Gramophone picks once more Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra for "CD of the Month." In its July 2007 issue, “Gramophone,” the prestigious British classical-music monthly, announced that it selected a new recording by the Budapest Festival Orchestra, under its conductor, Ivan Fischer, as the magazine’s “CD of the Month.” [read more] May 2007 - GEORGINA LUKACS SINGS TOSCA IN BALTIMORE! Hungarian soprano Georgina Lukacs (Lukács Gyöngyi) is scheduled to sing the title role in Puccini’s Tosca at the Baltimore Lyric Opera. The performances are May 5, 9, 11, and 13. The tenor role, Cavaradossi, will be performed by Antonello Palombi, James Morris will sing Scarpia. Georgina Lukacs has been performing on the international stage for a number of years, in 2003 she received the Republic of Hungary’s “Merited Artist” award. Tickets may be purchased at the Baltimore Lyric Opera, 410-727-6000. [read more] about her. 4/30/2007 - Ivan Fischer to serve as National Symphony Orchestra Conductor for two years: Declines offer of Music Director position. The Washington Post reported on April 13 that Ivan Fischer will serve as the Washington National Symphony’s principal conductor for two years, at the beginning of the 2008-2009 season. Fischer declined the NSO’s offer to serve as its music director. [read more] 4/12/2007 - The New Yorker reviews Sandor Marai's "The Rebels." In its April 2 issue, “The New Yorker” magazine published a lengthy, scholarly essay about Sandor Marai and his novel, “The Rebels” (“A Zendulok”), recently published in an English translation. “Sandor Marai is getting younger,” says Arthur Phillips in the opening sentence of his essay and explains that “Embers” was the first Marai novel translated into English (“A Gyertyak Csonkig Egnek”), which Marai wrote when he was forty-two years old; “Casanova in Bolzano” (“Vendegjatek Bolzanoban”) was the next novel in English, which was written when the author was forty; and the “The Rebels,” written when Marai was thirty, is the latest English translation of his novels. In short, English-speaking readers are getting to know Marai in a reverse chronological order. [read more] Dec 14 - 16, 2006: Hungarian American, André Watts, performs Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto in a program that also includes Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Ginastera's Concerto for Strings with the National Symphony Orchestra under counductor Leonard Slatkin. The first African-American concert pianist to achieve international superstardom. Critics have called Watts electrifying, sensational, daring, colorful, imaginative, powerful, and a supervirtuoso. André Watts is the son of an American career soldier stationed in Germany and a Hungarian refugee. [read more] Nov 30 - Dec 2, 2006 |