Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1999-02-01 / 6. szám
MUSIC News from New York Antonio Procaccini with his mother Antoniette (left) and Norwalk friends (right) Teréz Deák and Charles Bálint. Antonio Procaccini, a native of Fairfield, Connecticut and frequent contributor to Magyar News, was recently appointed principal organist of Saint Stephen of Hungary Church in Manhattan. He had been substituting in this position since the July 1998 departure of the previous music director. His responsibilities will include playing the Saturday and Sunday masses, occasional weddings and funerals and, when necessary, the Hungarian language Sunday mass. Procaccini, currently a resident of the Astoria section of Queens, holds a BS in music education from Bridgeport University and an MBA from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business. He is assistant treasurer of Treasury Operations at Banco Santander New York branch in Manhattan. His music experience includes two years as volunteer organist and Italian choir director at Saint Raphael's Church in Bridgeport and eight years as member of the Benny Rae Plus Three orchestra. The position at Saint Stephen's is most closely related to his 1978-1982 stint as organist and choir f HUMGJpUJSJf ^ Glmb 147 Ward St., Wallingford, CT. P.O.Box 1816; Tel:203-639-0511 Available for cultural and social events. Hall, kitchen, bar, stage and ample parking. Contact: Kati Kovács director of Saint Ladislaus Roman Catholic Hungarian Church in South Norwalk, where he directed an English and a Hungarian choir. On the celebration of Saint Stephen's Day in August of last year, family and friends of Procaccini joined him in New York for the celebration of the Hungarian mass in honor of Hungary's first king and patron saint of the church A nearly-full house included many priests and dignitaries from other parishes and a special music program including cantor and trumpeter enhanced the occasion immensely. The singing of Himnusz, the Hungarian national anthem, took place at the end of the mass. A sumptuous Hungarian lunch with musical entertainment ensued in the church hall, an occasion enjoyed by hundreds of parishioners. ************ Magyar News readers wish Antonio Procaccini success in the coming years in his new endeavor and also look forward to future articles from him. Charles Bálint Experienced in all phases of TAX and ACCOUNTING Allan Chomortany, CPA FAIRFIELD LOCATION Phone: (203)335-1935 Hungarian made There have been many jokes floating around in Hungary about traveling in space. One of them was was about the Hungarian peasant. It was known during the Communist regime that people were fleeing from the villages. That is when they said that the Hungarian peasants were already in space because they were moving further and further from the land. It also happened that a lucky Hungarian actually visited space. In the spring of 1980 Bertalan Farkas on board Soyuz- 36 left the earth. The whole population of the Kisvárdai Bessenyei György Gimnázium his alma mater, faculty, students and the alumni, including myself, followed every moment of his trip. Many Hungarians helped to set the grounds for the space flight. Farkas Bolyai’s non-Euclidean geometry is the basic to figure out the track, Teodor von Kármán made it possible to control the movement of a rocket, Ányos Jedlik inventing the generator, then Dénes Mihály laid the groundwork of television with Kálmán Tihanyi, János Neuman’s contributions made the development of computers possible, and if you “didn’t miss your train” you might travel on Ferenc Pavlics’ moon-buggy. We could go into details and list many more Hungarians. We could examine the last space venture with Senator Glenn. The Hungarians put their two-cents into this too. The name of the instrument is: PAL (Panoramic Annular Lens). At first reading one may be sure that it is an optical device. It is a wide angle lens ring that shows the surrounding 360 degrees. One could see forward and backward at the same time and also see what is happening on the sides. The inventor is professor Pál Greguss, his invention will also be part of the year 2001 Mars landing. The robots of the future will all use this lens to “see”. Pretty impressive listing from a small country. Credit where credit belongs Antonio Procaccini has been a contributor to the Magyar News for some time. His articles, mostly on Hungarian music, are true assets to our publication. In the January issue of this year the Magyar News ran an article Music Museums of Budapest. Unfortunately due to a technical foul-up Procaccini’s byline was left out. We regret this and we hope that our readers will make note of it. Editor Page 5
