Accepted Abstracts -- 2022

Applying the Táncház Method to Worldwide Hungarian Folk Singing Teaching (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Drawing on over a decade of immersive ethnographic research and innovative cross-cultural teaching on opposite sides of the globe, this paper shares methodologies used and results achieved in the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle (Népdalkör), which currently offers online Hungarian folk singing classes to hundreds of participants from over 50 countries. With millions of Hungarians living outside of the Carpathian Basin, the majority of whom do not speak Hungarian, and millions of non-Hungarians who are interested in learning about this repertoire, there is a critical need to offer high-quality, accessible, English-language education suitable to these demographics. This presentation will include the original context of Hungarian folk songs in traditional village life, the village folk song collections and teaching methodologies used in the táncház movement over the past 50 years, and the application of this UNESCO-recognized method to non-Hungarian speakers and to the online medium. Results will be shown through both participation statistics and musical examples.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zina Bozzay is an active performer, researcher, arranger, and teacher of traditional Hungarian village folk songs. Trained in Hungary by master folk singers, Zina collects from last living village singers who learned in the oral tradition. She founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle in San Francisco in 2010 and since then has taught thousands of Hungarian speakers and non-speakers from six continents over the past decade, including at the Hungarian Heritage House in Budapest. Zina holds a Masters degree in Music Composition and tours internationally with her ensemble Vadalma, performing her acclaimed original arrangements. www.zinabozzay.com.

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Hungarian Folk Singing Workshop (Open to all)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Held in English, this traditional Hungarian folk singing workshop is open to participants of all musical and language backgrounds. The beautiful songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, such as those famously collected by Bartók and Kodály, and materials include the Hungarian song lyrics, English translations, and background information on the songs and style. The workshop is held by Zina Bozzay, active teacher of Hungarian folk songs in both the US and Hungary, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zina Bozzay is an active performer, researcher, arranger, and teacher of traditional Hungarian village folk songs. Trained in Hungary by master folk singers, Zina collects from last living village singers who learned in the oral tradition. She founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle in San Francisco in 2010 and since then has taught thousands of Hungarian speakers and non-speakers from six continents over the past decade, including at the Hungarian Heritage House in Budapest. Zina holds a Masters degree in Music Composition and tours internationally with her ensemble Vadalma, performing her acclaimed original arrangements. www.zinabozzay.com.

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Hungarian American Children's Piano Literature for Beginners: a Newly Discovered Genre? (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Bartók Béla composed a number of well-known piano pieces for children at the beginner-level, including Gyermekeknek (1908-9) and Mikrokozmosz (1926-39). He was prolific during his years in Hungary, but his immigration to the United States in 1940 signaled the end of an era for his children’s compositions. By contrast, a number of lesser-known Hungarian musicians began to write notable children’s piano works for beginners after immigrating to the United States. Not commonly played today and difficult to find in print, some of these piano works might be considered lost were it not for their recognition in an annual survey of the best quality new American children’s piano music published by the Music Library Association in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s. Among the recognized composers of beginners’ literature are Jámbor Ági, a student of Kodály; Balogh Ernő, a student of Kodály and Bartók; and Ágay Dénes, also a Liszt Academy graduate. Angela A. Chong proposes that these children’s pieces share markers of quality articulated by Kodály and Bartók, such as folk-music inspiration from both Hungary and the US, and might be considered their own genre of twentieth-century Hungarian American beginners’ piano literature. The pieces make a unique contribution to our historical understanding of the pedagogical practices of some of Kodály’s and Bartók’s students who later established themselves in the United States. This presentation is informed by Chong’s work with her own small children, teaching them Jambor’s “Three Pieces for One Piano, Four Hands” (1965) at home during COVID-19.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Angela A. Chong (née Wu) was a 2001-2002 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Hungary, studying at the Kodály Intézet in Kecskemét. Her research under Dr. Ittzés Mihály culminated in a paper entitled, “Moral and Political Education and Kodály,” presented at the Hungarian Fulbright Commission’s 10th Anniversary Conference. Ms. Chong received her B.A. in Religion and Government at Harvard College, writing a magna cum laude thesis entitled, “Moral and Political Education: Twin Pillars of a Democratic, Pluralistic Society.” With a J.D. from Harvard, she now practices law in Los Angeles and teaches her 5- and 6-year-old children music using innovative Kodály-based pedagogies.

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Hungarian Music Tradition in the Online Space; challenges, limits and possibilities (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
March 2020 meant the start of a new era in music education: the transposition from the "real" into the virtual environment. We had to overcome the challenge by finding new ways of music instruction/communication, , without sacrificing its main essence and definition. Even though the development of educational technology provided platforms for music courses to take place online, a transformation of pedagogical practice and approach was required. At first, it seemed music is not transferrable from traditional to online environment. Still, after three semesters of teaching all of our courses/classes/lessons online, we can say, that despite the inherent compromises, even traditional program structures can be enhanced with the aid of online teaching.

In Spring 2020, being still the head of the Music Department, I could get an overall view of the way our teaching staff transformed their approaches and strategies. Each of us had to constantly adapt ourselves either by molding the subject content to the digital environment, or by awakening and stimulating a continuous sense of interactivity between us and our students. from. Implications included also assisting music faculty in their endeavor of adapting their pedagogical approach on individual, departmental and institutional levels.

In Fall 2020, our department became the consortium leader of the Erasmus+ project "A New Era of Digital Platforms in Music E-ducation", tender created to help overcome the COVID-crisis in music industry, both in its performative and educational aspect. The project is built upon a strategic partnership between 7 institutions, it aims to help the recovery from the pandemic, by:
1) defining the innovative methods for an efficient online teaching
2) creating a large spectrum audio database of parts and voices of vocal/instrumental/theoretical music subjects
3) implementing blended music teaching
4) developing a progressive, integrated digital curriculum for all music subjects
5) providing an E-platform for all participating partners, music creating collaborative discussion opportunities for musicians and promoting deeper music educational and interpretative understanding.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Hungarian concert pianist, piano professor at the Music Institute of Eszterházy Károly Catholic University of Eger. In 2003 received DMA in piano performance from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and in 2012 obtained a habilitation also in piano performance from the Liszt Academy. In 2000-2006 – as artist of the Hungarian Radio – played numerous live solo and chamber music recitals; has been performing regularly at the Liszt Museum in Budapest, played at the Spring Festival of Budapest, Pecs and Eger. In Europe gave solo and chamber music concerts in Belgium, Finland, Serbia, Spain. In Romania has been frequently soloist of the State Philharmonics of Targu-Mures. In the United States played Bartók (Concerto no.3 for piano and orchestra, the Sonata for two pianos and percussions) and also all-Bartók recitals in New York (2013, 2015), Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver). In 2011, as a Fulbright grantee, played concerts and recitals honouring the Liszt bicentenary. Outside Europe and the North American continent, also toured Indonesia, Brazil, India, New Zealand.

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“Busy with Music” – an Innovative Music Education Method for Children Aged 2 to 7 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper introduces a music education method worked out by the author. The method “Busy with Music” was developed for toddlers and kindergarten-age children and has been included in the program of MÜPA Budapest (Palace of Arts) since 2012. The methodology was published as a book (Mindenben zene; “Music in Everything”) in 2016 and was also presented at the Balassi Institute in Budapest at the methodological training of Hungarian educators working abroad. The novelty of the method lies in the fact that it implements musical education and the development of musical skills by using mainly Hungarian folk music and embedding it in complex activities that target various competence areas. The tools used in the sessions are simple everyday objects and toys that can motivate them, catch their attention, and raise their interest (wooden spoon, wooden blocks, ribbons, buttons, etc.). The method relies on the transfer effect (on language, reading, writing, mathematics, etc.) of the games, which are based on the components of music (rhythm, volume, pitch, melody, harmonies, etc.). The method was inspired by the principle that all children are capable of understanding music and expressing themselves through music, but personal experience and activity are equally important to them. This activity-oriented method can easily be adapted to Kodály’s concept of everyday singing, and it can also support children’s self-expressive, cognitive, affective, and social competences, and their success in school.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zsuzsanna Hegedűsné Tóth has been teaching at the Department of Singing and Music at the Faculty of Primary and Pre-School Education of Eötvös Loránd University since 2005. She has BAs in teaching music, choir leading, preschool education, and an MA in pedagogy, and she is currently a PhD student at Eötvös Loránd University. Her field of research is music education in early childhood and the renewal of the musical training of early childhood and preschool educators. She also researches the legacy of Katalin Forrai, who was a disciple of Kodály and an outstanding figure of music education.

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Rigó Jancsi és Amerika: a cigányprímás életének tengerentúli vonatkozásai (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Rigó Jancsi cigányprímás botrányos szerelmi történetét sokan és sokféleképpen dolgozták fel (Fényes Szabolcs operettet írt róla, Dankó Pista népszínművet), mégis rengeteg a kérdéses pont az életében. 1858-ban született Pákozdon, szegény cigánycsalád sarjaként. A felemelkedésre egyetlen lehetősége volt: a zenélés. Párizsban ismerte meg Clara Wardot, az 1873-ban született detroiti milliomoslányt, aki a belga, Marie Joseph Anatole Elie de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay herceg felesége, kétgyerekes anya volt. Rigó „megszöktette” Clarát, aki elvált férjétől és hozzáment a pírmáshoz. Az őket övező nemzetközi botrány biztosította megélhetésüket: Rigó hegedült, felesége átlátszó, hófehér ruhában pózolt. A sikerek után (fellépés a Moulin Rouge-ban stb.) Clara elvált Jancsitól, volt még két olasz férje, mielőtt 42 évesen, Padovában meghalt. Jancsi karrierje Amerikában folytatódott az 1900-as évek elején, ahol a New York-i Little Hungary nevű étteremben játszott. Itt úgy reklámozták, mint „A Világ leghíresebb hegedűsét”. Karrierjének csúcsa az volt, hogy itt Teddy Rooseveltnek zenélt. Később megismert egy Catherine Hadley nevű nőt, a Yale Egyetem egyik professzorának lányát, akit megszöktetett a férjétől és elvette feleségül. Rövid ideig Berlinben éltek, majd 1911-ben visszatértek Amerikába. Rigó 1927-ben tüdőbajban hal meg. A Kensico temetőben (Valhalla, New York állam) nyugszik. Tehetségét, hírnevét sosem tudta tartósan vagyonra váltani.
Az előadás Rigó Jancsi életének amerikai vonatkozásait mutatja be. Kapcsolatát detroiti feleségével, a normaszegő életet folytató Clarával, megérkezését Amerikába, ottani kapcsolatrendszerét, illetve azt, hogy miért nem volt képes hírneve ellenére átütő zenei sikert elérni és miért rekedt meg kávéházi zenészként, akit inkább botrányhősként, mint művészként tartottak számon.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Historian, graduated from the Eötvös Loránd University. He started working at the National Archives of Hungary. He is working for the Institute of History, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences as an associate research fellow. His research field is the cultural and social history of Hungary in the 19th and 20th centuries. Author and editor of several books. He has held several positions: member of the directorial staff of the Hungarian Historical Society (later he was the secretary), member of the Hungarian–Serbian Academic Joint Committee, vicepresident of the Csokonai Vitéz Mihály Society of Literature and Art.

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Cross-Border Digital Dance Education During COVID -19 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungarian folk dance teacher training in Vojvodina.

Even during the pandemic, continuous dance education did not stop at either the university or lower levels. The realization of the learning support system used by the Hungarian Dance University was implemented in a cross-border educational program. The length of the course is 3 and a half years, in which the teaching takes place in 8 occasion on Saturdays and Sundays in 15 lessons in each "school year". A solution had to be found for this practical part because of the border locks. Using the Course Garden learning support system, we successfully resolved consultations and other preparational opportunities between consultation dates. The papers and other reports submitted by the participants thus received a direct evaluation, preparing the next material. The number of participants in the online course was 70. I performed the administrative tasks and I coordinated the whole system - together with the teachers, organizers and students. I would like to present the process of this in my presentation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
professional folkdancer 1979-1998
University of Debrecen graduated teacher of pedagogy 2003
ELTE doctoral school of education Budapest 2008.
master teacher Hungarian Dance University 2018-

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The Preservation of Kalotaszeg Peasant Embroidery in Churches and the Current Display Dilemma (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Of late there has been an important debate in the Hungarian Reformed churches regarding the display of the donated Kalotaszeg embroidery following the restoration work in two of the most iconic in the region Văleni/Magyarvalkó and the market town, centre of Kalotaszeg, Huedin/Bánffyhunyad. This issue of display/non display of peasant, national, traditional, hand sewn donations carries considerable emotional attachment and rather unlocks the issue of heritage today as a whole. Firstly the historical background to the embroidery donations, which commemorate life events in a religious context, will be outlined before focusing on the discussion which began before the renovations were finished and the decisions taken in 2021 not to display the peasant sewing donations when the churches reopened. The public response, virtually on Facebook, has spread to local and online newspaper articles. Conservators, ethnographers, ministers and local sewing culture researchers have all taken part. The debate touches women’s issues, identity, respect, tradition, religion, and heritage. The search for solutions is on. The hope is to turn the negative into a positive and further underline the importance of crafts specific to the region.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I am Sara J. Meaker an independent scholar living in Kalotaszeg,Transylvania with a special interest in the arts and crafts movement in Kalotaszeg and  Kalotaszeg peasant embroidery in particular. Last year I co-authored a book with Újvári Dorottya about one of the great movers and shakers of the Kalotaszeg embroidery in the region between the two world wars, Kónya Gyuláné Schéfer Teréz and her Kalotaszeg pattern collection research and many creations. The significance of this Hungarian Reformed minister’s wife, active in Văleni/Magyarvalkó between the world wars, had generally gone unrecognised.

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A Shock to the System: How Hungarian Dance Groups are Coping with Covid-19 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Community is at the center of Hungarian dance groups in the US and Canada, and dance often provides the focus and organization for events and celebrations in the Hungarian community. In addition, dance is a pillar of youth education. Hungarian dance groups are communities in themselves, growing friendships and families out of devotion to dance and each other. The sudden effect of cancellation of activities and isolation in 2020 caused by Covid-19 shocked this bond. How can a medium built on physical contact continue when there is none? How have the varying beliefs, attitudes, and political responses swirling around the virus affected the behavior of group members? What is the impact of individual decisions on what the group can do? This study explores the effect of Covid-19 on dance communities in the Eastern US and Canada. Using personal interviews and records of events, it discusses specific challenges and ways of coping, and how groups struggled to maintain a memory of the “before time” and preserve their values. International Folk Dance in the US/Canada is intertwined with Hungarian dance activity, offering revelatory comparisons. I will also make a comparison with European activities over the same period. Communities surveyed include those in New York; New Brunswick; Washington, DC; Boston; Detroit; Montreal; and Sarasota.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judith E. Olson (NYU, U Colorado) historical musicologist working with traditional Hungarian music/dance in Romania, Hungary, and among Hungarians in the United States/Canada. She combines research in traditional settings, Hungarian dance camps, and revival groups with analysis of dance/music structure, process, and improvisation. She presents frequently at International Council for Traditional Music, International Musicological Society, Analytical Approaches to World Music, Society for Ethnomusicology, and AHEA. She performs research and organizes táncház in New York City with Hungarian House and American Hungarian Folklore Centrum. Secondary research areas include International Folk Dancing in the US, Balkan brass bands, and 19th-century German music/culture.

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Intangible Cultural Heritage Communities in the Pandemic (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In my presentation, I will try to illustrate the impact of the pandemic on intangible cultural
heritage in Hungary through the practices of ICH communities and the specific responses
that emerged. I will examine the communities which are in the national inventory of
intangible cultural heritage for example Busó festivities, blue-dyeing tradition and táncház
method. Hungary joined the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage in 2006. Intangible cultural heritage is essentially a cultural practice that exists in
oral form, in knowledge, skills and customs, and can be linked to living communities. This
intangible cultural heritage, handed down from generation to generation and constantly
recreated by communities, provides them with a shared identity and a sense of continuity.
The Convention aims to safeguard these communal practices, to strengthen the identity of
communities with their own cultural identity, thereby promoting the mutual recognition of
cultural diversity, and to raise awareness of the importance of intangible forms of
expression. A general characteristic of heritage communities is that they respond to the
world around them, constantly shaping their traditions. During the period of the COVID-19
pandemic, these communities, like the world at large, were in a state of constant change,
and the heritage communities had to respond to the pandemic.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dóra Pál-Kovács is coordinator of the Directorate for the Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Hungarian Open Air Museum. She gained her Bachelor Degree in 2012 and Master Degree in 2014 in the field of ethnography and dance anthropology at the University of Szeged. She defended her PhD dissertation titled "Men and female in dance tradition of Magyarózd" in 2019 at Babeş–Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Her research topic is about examining gender roles within the dance tradition of Magyarózd in the 20th century.

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Tradition, Theory, Practice. Mission Statement of the Folk Music Department at Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest. (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
By the early 1970s, mainstream Hungarian ethnomusicology possessed an immense ocean of archive field recordings, a worldwide-unique, extensive method of tune-typology, and a pertinent classification system. It also had more than seventy years of expertise in both musicological and cultural-anthropological tune-analysis, efficient fieldwork, and research on complex and abstract phenomena of traditional music within the Carpathian Basin and beyond. This environment provided fertile soil for the sprouting Hungarian revival movement, the táncházmozgalom, whose past 49 years show great success in efficiently grafting traditional music and dance into the urban environment. Now Hungarian ethnomusicology wasn’t only a theoretical think tank--folk music theorists, táncház musicians, and choreographers worked side-by-side exploring still-undiscovered issues of the Hungarian tradition, our ethnic neighbors, and minorities. This atmosphere fostered research of functional aspects in musical and dance folklore and in the Carpathian Basin’s complex inter-ethnic relations, as well as contributing to development in practice-based examination of instrumental music. From the mid-’90s onwards, folk music as a label gradually became an integral part of the Hungarian music industry, and more and more musical projects chose to drift away from pure authenticity in order to discover new paths in traditional-rooted crossover. With the terminal dissolving of the once-firm system of traditional rural societies and as the last old informants pass away, younger folk musicians and scholars, beginning with the generation of the author, must lean on archive field recordings to acquire their skills. This presentation centers on archival, analytical, and practice-based approaches developed within the Liszt Ferenc Academy for the essential preparation of musicians for the range of folk-music applications from revival through the wide variety of cross-over genres that have and will evolve.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Folk Musician and ethnomusicologist Dr. Soma Salamon is one of the most prominent members in the younger generations of the Hungarian folklore revival movement (Táncházmozgalom). Besides his active performing career spanning multiple decades and continents, he is the folk music program editor and consultant of the recently-launched House of Music in Budapest. Posts include research fellow in the Institute of Musicology and lecturer for instrumental and theoretical classes at the Liszt Academy of Music. He is a frequently-invited presenter at Massachussetts College of Art and Design. His main fields of research are ethnic flutes in the Carpathian Basin, methodology/comparative analysis in Hungarian ethnomusicology, international relations of Hungarian ethnomusicology and folklore studies, typology of Hungarian folk melodies, Bartók‘s Transylvanian field recordings, historical and multicultural relations of stylistic strata in Hungarian folk music, Western reception of Hungarian folk music research, margins between folk music and world music.

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Hungarian Revival Folk DancersDuring the Coronavirus Epidemic Through the Meme #legényesézzotthon [' do legényes at home'] (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The 2020 coronavirus epidemic brought measures that affected our everyday life. The strict epidemical instructions not only influenced the economic system of the government but society and within that the socio-cultural activities of smaller communities. Due to the global pandemic, the Hungarian folk revival community also has been reorganized in digital space and online platforms, events, and programs were created that can be considered as reactions to the pandemic situation. The present case study investigates how the cultural life of the Hungarian revival folk dancer community has been changed due to such restrictions. I present what kind of initiatives were started in the civil and institutional sphere, how as a result dance groups maintain their community nature. The analysis done through digital fieldwork, as well as with the aid of online semi-structured interviews and surveys. Through my survey I was able to gain an insight into a part of the community’s online activity, their initiatives, and the memes they created after the lockdown. The conclusion is the examined community’s activity is based on their direct connection among themselves and personal contact through dance and music, which cannot be reproduced online. Their activities in the digital space cannot replace personal connections but yet it does maintain and safeguard their feeling of community.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Anna Székely studied at the University of Szeged at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. She did research on a Hungarian village’s dance traditions, and customs in the 1940-50s. She finished the Choreomundus international master in dance knowledge, practice, and heritage. She does fieldwork in Transylvanian international folk dance and music camps, festivals, dance houses and folk dance competitions where she investigates the issue of authenticity. She has two master’s degrees. She participated in the Erasmus Intensive Program: Movement of Past and Present in Trondheim, Norway. Her interest is in the Hungarian traditional folk dance and the revival movement.

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The Reception and Reimagining of Katalin Karády in the Arts, 1980s to the Present (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In this paper we examine how Hungarian performers of the present day reflect artistically on Katalin Karády. The film star’s unique contributions to music, fashion, and popular entertainment as well as
her rumored bisexuality rendered her unique in the country’s history of popular culture. As well, her legend was bolstered by her humanitarian activism, persecution by both the fascist and communist
authorities, and her emigration. Karády thus has meant many things to her public, past and present. This paper will contrast two recent interpretations. The 1986 album Nincs kegyelem (There is no mercy) by Juli Postássy, András Trunkos, and Ádám Dévényi, exemplifies a late socialist-era interest in making stylized re-embodiments of Karády as a singer. Artists contemplating Karády since 1990 have had the
advantage of knowing previously suppressed facts about the star’s life. Zsófia Bán’s monodrama entitled Karady politicizes her predicament focusing on issues like abuse and torture, lesbian relationship, emigration, and workmanlike acting. We argue that the singularity of the abject (Kristeva) as represented by Karády offers Hungarian artists the potential for a penetrating set of symbolic commentaries on contemporary society and contemporary personal experience.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Anna Szemere, Independent scholar, was formerly Research Fellow at the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She holds the PhD from the University of California, San Diego. She is author, with András Rónai, of Bea Palya: I’ll Be Your Plaything (Bloomsbury, 2022) and Up from the Underground: The Culture of Rock Music in Postsocialist Hungary (Penn State, 2001). Her research
interests include popular music and youth culture and the politics of gender with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Email: anna.szemere@gmail.com.

Barbara Rose Lange is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Houston,
Texas. She holds the PhD from the University of Washington. She is author of Local Fusions: Folk Music Experiments in Central Europe at the Millennium (Oxford, 2018) and Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church (Oxford, 2003). Her research interests focus on Romani, Magyar, and Central European vernacular and popular song. Email: sor2355@gmail.com

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Concert Pianist Ági Jámbor's War Memoir Considered in Its Broader Historical Context (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In 1949 Ági Jámbor wrote a memoir of survival in wartime Budapest, but it was only in 2020 that it was published as Escaping Extermination. Hungarian Prodigy to American Musician, Feminist, and Activist, Jámbor studied in Hungary with Zoltán Kodály and later in Berlin with Edwin Fischer, with whom she performed in Europe, but in her postwar refugee life in the U.S. she was able to reestablished only a limited musical career. As in her memoir there is little of substance about her musical life, I have tried to reconstruct fragments of her personal and professional life. It is elucidating to move beyond the author's personal limitations of memory, as well as her silences and gaps, juxtaposing later documentation related to her life. I will discuss her performance work, such as her recitals of all of Bach's keyboard music, her performances with fellow Hungarian refugees Eugene Ormandi and Nicholas Harsányi, her compositions of children's music, and her collaboration with Albert Szent Györgyi in the Psalmus Humanus, for which Jámbor composed the music and Szent-Györgyi wrote and spoke the lyrics, as well as her interest in the then still fledgling discipline of ethnomusicology and Hungarian gypsy music, which was then little known in the West. Jámbor's prewar cosmopolitan European life, as well as her long and difficult postwar émigré life, can take on additional interest as exemplary of refugee artists in the tumultuous intellectual history of Central Europe in the twentieth century.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Louise O. Vasvári (Ph.D., UC, Berkeley) is Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and of Linguistics at Stony Brook University. Currently she teaches in the Linguistics Department at NYU and is also Affiliated Professor at the University of Szeged. She works in Medieval Studies, diachronic and sociolinguistics, Holocaust Studies, and Hungarian Studies, all informed by gender theory within a broader framework of Comparative Cultural Studies. In relation to Hungarian Cultural Studies she has published numerous articles, as well as, with Steven Tötösy, Imre Kertész and Holocaust Literature (2005), Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies (2009), and Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies (2011). Since 2011 Vasvári is also Editor-in-Chief of Hungarian Cultural Studies. louise.vasvari@stonybrook.edu

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