DEAR FELLOW MUSIC LOVERS,

We are preparing for a large music festival of Hungarians and neighbouring peoples living in the Carpathian Basin. Through the Carpathian Basic Classical Music Festival, we aim to show what a diverse and varied musical culture we Hungarians, in interaction with the peoples living here, have created.

This music festival is at once a celebration and a tribute to our musical traditions and our great forerunners. In addition to the art of Hungarian composers feted on concert platforms worlwide, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ernő Dohnányi, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Károly Goldmark, and László Lajtha, we would like everyone to see and sense how their work arose from the history of the Carpathian Basin, its culture, its music education, and its openness to the world at large.

It is for me a great task and also a delight, that the artists perform in several music venues, in Hungary, Transylvania, Subcarpathia, and former Upper Hungary, and we sense it is a great opportunity that the musics of the peoples of the Carpathian Basin be played together, as part of one and the same music festival.

One important mission of this festival is to promote cooperation between musicians living in the Carpathian Basin and to discover new talents. This takes shape in the cross-border chamber concerts, masterclasses, musicology conference, and the piano competition held for young people living in the Carpathian Basin.

It is our hope that the Carpathian Basin Classical Music Festival will create a tradition and will serve the coexistence of the Hungarians and other peoples in the Carpathian Basin.

Apolka Bonnyai
Artistic Director
Festival Director

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear fellow art lovers,

It is a great honour for me to be able to support this prestigious, unique music festival and initiative.

It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is in our world to protect things of value, to nurture traditions, and to patronize the arts.

Although the radiant power of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basic, their musical culture, is famed far and wide, our task is to show how this unique, incomparable, Hungarian culture of classical music was built up, and how it grew.

One splendid opportunity for disseminating this is this cross-border initiative, which, true to its name, aims to cast the spotlight on the richness and diversity of the music of the Hungarian community in the Carpathian Basin, on the Hungarians’ strong commitment to culture, and on their renowned achievements on significant concert platforms through the world.

This international festival also shows cooperation between the peoples of the Carpathian Basin in the field of music, the harmony of their work and interaction, and their constructive power.

It is my solemn belief that the Carpathian Basin is one of the richest in the world, not merely in natural assets, beauty, and ethography but also one of the most important source regions and centres of global musical culture.

It is my wish that this noble initiative give life to the classical musical traditions of the Hungarians and the peoples of the Carpathian Basin present their interwoven destinies, serve their cooperation and better mutual understanding, for the betterment of us all. 

Dr. István Bajkai
Patron

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Ever since humankind has existed, we have tried to express our deepest thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the material and spiritual world, of our own selves, our fellow humans, and the Creator.

The result of this expression is art, which is as old as humankind, and of all the various branches of art, music is perhaps the purest and the most ancient. The various melodies, the musical motives characteristic of a given people or culture, determine the lives of all of us, from the mother’s womb to the end of our lives.

Music creates value and conveys value. Hungarian music, Hungarian classical music has a special role in shaping and forming our identity. There is no event in Hungarian history that has not served as a theme for Hungarian folk music. Surveying our greatest composers, Liszt, Kodály, Lehár, Kálmán, and Bartók, we see that the main basis of their works is the thousand-year legacy of Hungarian folk music. The works of these masters became defining masterpieces of universal music history while at the same time retaining their uniquely Hungarian motifs and meaning.

The Carpathian Basin Classical Music Festival came into being with the aim of creating a tradition to show the diverse musical heritage and artistic activity of the peoples living in the Carpathian Basin, and to promote cooperation between the peoples dwelling here. One unique aspect of the festival is that the concerts are held on successive days in Budapest, Miskolc, Debrecen, Subotica, Bratislava, Uzhhorod, and Cluj-Napoca. The Carpathian Basin Classical Music Festival is shining proof that the popularity of classical music is unbroken to this day, that alongside lighter genres, audiences need spiritual nourishment that creates and conveys value.

My thanks go to the musicians who through music give so much pleasure, and convey value, and it is my wish that through music they can show themselves and the most hidden recesses of their souls to the music-loving public.

Professor Dr. Miklós Kásler
Minister for Human Resources
Patron of the Festival