William Penn Life, 2001 (36. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2001-04-01 / 4. szám

Partium University Choir tours US.

PITTSBURGH — Fans of traditional Hungarian and classical music are in for a treat this spring. The Partium Hungarian Christian University Choir of Nagyvarad, Romania, will be conducting an 11-city tour of the United States and Canada.

The 40-member choir performs under the direction of Sándor Berkesi, a Liszt award-winning conductor. The concert program will feature music by Hungarian composers, such as Liszt and Kodály. The choir will also perform pieces by other great composers, including Bach and Mozart, as well as traditional folk music.

The tour is an ecumenical effort initiated by the ethnic Hungarian Roman Catholic and Reformed churches in Transylvania to raise funds for the university.

Accompanying the choir will be two of the university's founders: the

Rev. József Tempfli, the Roman Catholic bishop of Nagy varad, and the Rev. László Tokes, bishop of the Reformed Synod in Nagyvarad.

The choir will perform in Ligonier, Pa., as part of the 80th celebration of the Bethlen Home. The Ligonier concert will be held Thursday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m., in the sanctuary of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Ligonier. The performance is being sponsored by the WPA, Hungarian Reformed Federation of America and Hungarian Reformed Churches of Western Pennsylvania.

Tickets for the Ligonier concert are $20 for adults, $15 for retirees and $5 for children. Prices include admission to a post-concert reception.

To order tickets for the Ligonier concert and for more information, call Endre Csornán, WPA membership activities coordinator, at 1-800- 848-7366, ext. 136.

HMMI

Gypsy band concert

PITTSBURGH - The Déke Lakatos Sándor Sr. &Jr. Gypsy Band from Budapest’s Mátyás Pince will perform at the Hazelwood Hungarian Club on Sunday, May 6, at 4:00 p.m. This is your chance to hear two of the world’s most famous gypsy band leaders, as they perform music by Californian János Semegi, Brahms, Liszt, Strauss, Kálmán and others.

Tickets are $20 and can be ordered by calling (412) 381-3322.

Aristocratic art

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - At the turn of the 20th Century, like the prince who passed himself off as a pauper, Baron László Mednyánszky disguised himself and painted images of society’s underbelly. His grim but beautiful work is now on display at the Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick. The exhibit of Mednyánszky’s work will be open from now until Sept. 16. For museum hours and more details, call (732) 846-5777.

Research workshop

The University of llliniois, Urbana- Champaign, will conduct a Hungarian Studies Research Workshop June 17 to 22. The workshop is open to graduate students, college teachers, primary and secondary school teachers and anyone conducting scholarly research on a Hungarian topic. The university offers one of America’s largest Hungarian libraries, with 2,400 books, journals and periodicals about Hungary. For more information, contact Arthur Bartfay at (614) 442-6593, or you can email him at tiszafolyo@yahoo.com.

March 15 Commemoration

Leaders of the American Hungarian community commemorated the Hungarian War of Independence 1848-49 with a wreath-laying ceremony at the bust of Louis Kossuth in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Participating were (l-r): E. E (AI) Vargo, WPA national director, Anthony C. Beke, WPA chairman of the Board; U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.); George Dózsa, acting president of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America; and Géza Jeszenszky, Hungarian ambassador to the U.S.

William Penn Life, April 2001

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