Kettős Hangzat - Folk Music Concert

Hungarian Folk-music from the Carpathian Basin performed by two fiddles. A concert by Tamás Nyitrai and Márton Pusko.
Hungarian Folk-music from the Carpathian Basin performed by two fiddles. A concert by Tamás Nyitrai and Márton Pusko.
One of the most popular musical instruments of the Carpathian Basin is the fiddle.
At our concert we would like to introduce you this type of musical tradition and play fiddle music preserved by the ethnicities living in the Carpathian Basin. During these compositions you can listen to the folk music of well-known, as well as lesser known regions – each of which representing the unique traditions of fiddle music. You might as well find reconstructions of traditional music in our repertoire which not only had had an effect on the works of our greatest composers in the past but also on today’s great performers of Hungarian folk music, as well.

(Recorded by Gábor Finta) 

Remembering the 1848 revolution

On the 17th of March the anniversary of the 1848 revolution was celebrated in the Ottawa Hungarian Community Center. The guest speaker was László Sinka, first officer of the Hungarian Embassy. The program featured the students of the Hungarian School, Mariann Talla and a short film about the revolution was also shown. The participants concluded the event with singing songs from the time of the revolution.

(Recorded by Gábor Finta) 

"Fight for Freedom" – a Great Success

docudrama by Rozália B. Brestyánszki

played by Béla Kálló and Péter Lóránt Tóth

Centered on the relatively short lived, but all the more profound friendships of two of the giants of Hungarian Literature: the ebullient radical patriot poet, Sándor Petőfi, who dedicated his life to the anti-Hapsburg Revolution of 1848-49, losing it on the battlefields of Transylvania at the tender age of 26, fighting alongside the legendary Polish General, Josef Bem; and that of the more sedate, insecure, no less of a patriot, family man János Arany, who lived an incomparably longer life, content with his position of a provincial notary. He faithfuly took under his wing his rascal friend’s widow and infant child, then managed to create and leave behind a towering body of work, decades later, matching Petőfi’s opus in epic poetry.

The written material was aptly arranged in a dramatic flow of exchanges by the young dramaturg of Szabadka’s Popular Theatre (Bácska, present-day Serbia), Rozália Boros Brestyánski, and it relies on contemporary records, memoirs, anecdotes, diaries, and the written correspondence between the poets and their friends and relatives. The novelty of the approach consisted in the successful attempt of the performers to present the more or less known material as a true-to-life happening, as an exercise in verismo. They appeared in front of us as two young men, with their hopes and doubts, with their undeserved failures and incipient achievements, insecure of their future, which for one them never played out, never occured. They both had made a conscientious choice: one challenging his fate, the other assuming a more conciliatory, subdued position. It was their own pathway to Heaven, and now, they are finally free of worries and wars, hopes and angst, i.e. earthly life, they are the courtiers of Mnemosyne, Goddess of Remembrance.

Report on the Three Kings Ottawa Concert

On February 16, 2019, the Three Kings formation held a concert at the Ottawa Hungarian Community Center.

(recorded by Gábor Finta) 

Mikulás celebration

The Hungarian Community Center presented a Santa Claus celebration. The children baked cookies, sung and danced while waiting for the Mikulás who brought presents for them.

(Recorded by Tibor Lapohos and Gábor Finta)