Leading European and Hungarian choirs are to perform a Beethoven mass written at the request of a Hungarian nobleman and a strikingly modern composition by Liszt.

Two winners of the jury’s’ prizes at the 2007 Budapest Fringe Festival are to give a joint concert at the 2008 Spring Festival. On March 14th the EtnoRom ensemble and the Fugato Orchestra will appear in a single concert. Both groups are popular, professional and fond of experimenting. EtnoRom – formed in 2005 by two renowned singers from Kaly Jag, József Balog and Ágnes Künstler – plays authentic Gypsy music, not only Hungarian but also Balkan, Serb, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Spanish Gypsy songs and even melodies reaching right back to the Arab roots and they like to enliven their concerts with belly dancing and live Roma dance house sessions. The fifteen-member Fugato Orchestra led by Balázs Alpár can boast of a whole string of prizes. This ensemble also plays world music, but perhaps in this case it would be more precise to speak of the music of different worlds because it is a chamber symphony ensemble combined with a rock group, giving the possibility for the authentic performance and mingling of a wide range of styles. Its repertoire includes symphonic music as well as jazz and rock numbers. Its compositions – almost all the work of Balázs Alpár– are always perfectly polished, regardless of whether audiences and the experts classify them as light or serious music. And the whole of the orchestra’s activity perhaps serves to underline the point that there is no light and serious music, only good and bad music.

For the programme see the March 14 performance.

The exhibition of 100 enlarged photos of Transylvania printed on a special surface will be an exclusive attraction in and around the park and along the paths in front of the Hungarian Television building in Szabadság Square in Budapest’s 5th district.
The aim of the giant photo exhibition “100 faces of Transylvania” is to present traditionally multiethnic Transylvania through the cultural diversity that is clearly reflected in the different characters, architecture, material culture, natural and man-made environment and customs. We would like to show through these works of art that in 21st century Transylvania communities and individuals with a wide variety of cultures and traditions are setting a good example for everyone of how to coexist in peace despite differences.