Outdoor programs and a gala concert featuring not only Hungarian folk music from various regions but also Serbian, Greek, and Romanian tunes await the public on May 3 in Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc Square and the Liszt Academy, as part of the Day of the Dance House celebrations.
The celebration will kick off at 2 PM in Liszt Ferenc Square with outdoor programs, including dance lessons and craft workshops, running until 6:30 PM. An evening gala concert will take place in the Grand Hall of the Academy of Music, focusing on the living traditions of ethnic minorities residing in Hungary.
Alongside music from Hungarian-speaking areas of the Carpathian Basin—such as Transylvanian string instrument music, tamburica melodies from Bačka (Serbia), and bagpipe tunes from Felvidék (South-Slovakia)—audiences will also hear Serbian kolo (dance music), Romanian dances from Méhkerék, and Greek songs.
These performances will be presented by current and former students, PhD candidates, and artist-teachers of the Liszt Academy.
The gala concert will open with a speech by Ferenc Sebő, a key figure of the dance house movement and instructor at the Department of Folk Music. Organized for the fourteenth time by the Department of Folk Music and the Hungarian Heritage House,
the Day of the Dance House celebrates the launch of the Hungarian dance house movement that started 53 years ago.
This year’s event is framed by special anniversaries: the Liszt Academy turns 150 years old, and its youngest department—the Department of Folk Music—celebrates its 15th anniversary. It also marks the centenary of the birth of Bálint Sárosi, Széchenyi Prize-winning folk music researcher, whose work significantly enriched Hungarian ethnomusicology and the dance house movement.
Via MTI; Featured picture: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
