Accepted Abstracts

From Budapest to Broadway: Hungarian Operetta Voices in America

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungarian operetta has long served as a vibrant bridge between
Europe and the United States, carrying with it a distinctive blend of
lyricism, humor, and national identity. This presentation explores the
journey of Hungarian operetta singers who emigrated to America from
the early twentieth century onward, tracing how their artistry helped
shape the musical theater scene and popular entertainment on
Broadway and beyond. Drawing from archival sources, concert
programs, and historical recordings, the research examines
emblematic figures—such as Sári Barabás, Mártha Eggert, and Imre
Palló—who brought the Viennese Hungarian style to American
audiences.
Through a musicological and cultural-historical lens, the presentation
highlights how these artists preserved the essence of Hungarian
operetta while adapting to American tastes, language, and stage
traditions. It also considers how their contributions fostered
intercultural exchange and influenced the evolution of American light
opera and musical theater.
In celebrating 250 years of Hungarian-American cultural ties, this
project underscores the ongoing resonance of operetta as both a
symbol of nostalgia and a vehicle for artistic innovation. The
presentation concludes with selected audio-visual examples, including
a brief live musical excerpt, to demonstrate how the “Hungarian voice”
continues to echo in American performance culture today.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Emőke Armington is a Hungarian-American singer, music educator, and cultural advocate based in Ohio. Trained in Romania, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and Canada, she specializes in Hungarian vocal traditions, operetta, and classical crossover performance. She is the founder of the EMY School of Music, teaching piano, voice, violin and early-childhood music. Emőke actively promotes Hungarian musical heritage in the United States through concerts, workshops, and research, including her current project on the transatlantic journey of Hungarian operetta singers.

---

Frederic Balazs and the Tucson Civic Opera

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Arizona Opera, the state’s premier company, emerged in 1971 as an outgrowth of programs at the University of Arizona, the Tucson Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and the Opera Guild of Southern Arizona (Cordeiro 1968; Miller 2016). Another important but little-known precursor emanated from the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (TSO) under the direction of Hungarian American conductor Frederic Balazs, who furnished homegrown operatic experiences to Tucsonans from 1952 to 1966.
Balazs stands among the pioneers of opera in Tucson. He not only encouraged the inauguration of a civic chorus but also was the first to chair regional auditions of the Metropolitan Opera in Arizona. He promoted opera founder Mary Fabian, assisted in the organization of the aforementioned Guild, and supported the formation of a short-lived Tucson Civic Opera (1958–59). Perhaps most importantly, Balazs produced a large-scale operatic concert nearly every year of his tenure with the TSO.
Balazs’s 1955 semi-staged performance of Boris Godunov with the TSO and the Tucson Civic Chorus offers a glimpse of his ingenious methods for cultivating community patronage for opera. Guest artist Hungarian-émigré singer Désiré Ligeti soloed in an unusual miniature adaptation of the opera that catered to musical variety and dramatic effect. Balazs likewise aimed for sensation through the special installation of recorded bell sounds played over high-fidelity loudspeakers, eliciting a favorable response.
In sum, Balazs’s multifaceted approach nurtured the potential of local support for Arizona Opera’s establishment and renders a dynamic portrait of community influence, technological innovation, and musical artistry in the mid-twentieth century.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Jackie Bodily Biggs is a graduate student in musicology at the Brigham Young University School of Music. Since completing a one-year residency in Hungary in 2011, Jackie has maintained an interest in Hungarian music, including emigration’s impact on twentieth-century Hungarian composers. Her first scholarly article was published in the 2025 issue of The Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. She has presented at conferences of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society and the American Hungarian Educators Association. Jackie is deeply committed to sharing the inspiring power of music with all people.

---

Values and Worldview in Hungarian Folk Songs

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This presentation is an immersion into the poetry of the people. Collectively crafted and shared across generations, these rich and evocative song texts provide insight into older ways of thinking and the values and behaviors of those who sang them. Drawing on hundreds of traditional village folk songs as well as interviews with culture bearers in dozens of villages across the Carpathian Basin, the interpretations of the texts are informed by long-term relationships and lived experiences. These songs may reflect the value systems that generations of Hungarian immigrants brought with them to the United States, or may conversely help explain why others chose to stay in Hungary, or have recently repatriated from the United States to the “motherland.” The range of topics — including courtship and partner selection, love and loyalty, the natural and emotional worlds, wealth and poverty, and stages of life — cover the full spectrum of the human experience.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zina Bozzay is an active performer, researcher, arranger, and teacher of traditional Hungarian village folk songs. Raised in San Francisco and trained by master folk singers in Hungary, she collects songs from the last living village singers. Deeply committed to the diaspora and cross-cultural work, Zina founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle in 2010, through which she has taught thousands of people from over 50 countries. In Budapest, she teaches at the Óbuda Folk Music School, Hungarian Heritage House, ELTE, Fulbright Scholars, and the Liszt Academy of Music, as well as in her popular international online classes. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and holds a Masters degree in Music. www.zinabozzay.com

---

Hungarian Folk Singing Workshop

Type of Abstract (select): Workshop

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Held in English, this folk singing workshop is open to conference participants of all musical and language backgrounds, with no previous experience required. The beautiful songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, such as those famously collected by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and the workshop materials will include the song words, English translations, and background information on the style. The workshop is led by repeat AHEA presenter Zina Bozzay, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm. Join us!


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zina Bozzay is an active performer, researcher, arranger, and teacher of traditional Hungarian village folk songs. Raised in San Francisco and trained by master folk singers in Hungary, she collects songs from the last living village singers. Deeply committed to the diaspora and cross-cultural work, Zina founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle in 2010, through which she has taught thousands of people from over 50 countries. In Budapest, she teaches at the Óbuda Folk Music School, Hungarian Heritage House, ELTE, Fulbright Scholars, and the Liszt Academy of Music, as well as in her popular international online classes. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and holds a Masters degree in Music. www.zinabozzay.com

---

Liszt’s Waltz à la hongroise: The Mephisto Waltz No. 1

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (1859–62) exemplifies his capacity to merge national idioms with cosmopolitan dance forms. Drawing on Nikolaus Lenau’s retelling of the Faust legend, Liszt reimagines the Viennese waltz as a vehicle for both narrative and stylistic transformation. Beneath its programmatic surface – the demonic dance of Mephistopheles and a village inn – the piece reveals a deliberate subversion of traditional waltz conventions: its asymmetrical phrasing, volatile tonal plan, and extreme tempo fluctuations distort the elegant periodicity of the ballroom waltz (Hamilton 2011). The resulting rhythmical instability aligns the work more closely with Hungarian verbunkos practice, whose off-beat accents, modal inflections, and alternating moods of lassú and friss infuse the piece with Magyar vitality (Saffle 1994; Walker 1989). In this hybrid structure, the waltz becomes both seductive and infernal, embodying the same paradox that underlies Liszt’s national aesthetic: at once European and distinctively Hungarian. Rather than parodying the social dance, Liszt transforms it into a symbolic drama of temptation and liberation, where the sensual sweep of the waltz rhythm collides with the improvisatory intensity of Romani-Hungarian performance. Mephisto Waltz No. 1 thus fuses the popular and the metaphysical: a national idiom masquerading as cosmopolitan form, and a waltz that waltzes itself to the brink of transcendence. Through this reinterpretation, Liszt elevates dance into philosophical expression, situating the waltz at the centre of Romantic modernism’s dialogue between body, nation, and spirit.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
James Deaville teaches Music at Carleton University—his interests in music and screen media range from news music to representations of disability in audiovisual media. He has published books, book chapters, and articles about a variety of topics, most recently tied to audiovisual media. In 2019 he received a five-year Insight Grant from SSHRC for research on sounding disability in audiovisual media, which resulted in an article for The Soundtrack (2024). He has published book chapters and articles on Liszt and the Liszt circle in the press of their day.

---

Molnar Antal: Klasszikus Kánonok

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
It was almost 100 years ago that Antal Molnár published his original three-volume work (1928) whose revised second edition was edited by László Agócsy and came out in 1955. Its purpose then, as it remains now, was to introduce material to musicians with an end goal of improving their musicianship using solfa.
Molnár collected canons in the early 20th century; many of the canons were initially found in the form of early handwritten copies. The full collection of 230 canons includes 44 named composers, and 13 anonymous pieces. Although many of these canons were originally set to text, Molnár purposefully omitted texts in favor of a pedagogical aim of teaching solmization because he intended this collection as a supplement to teaching solfeggio.
In 2025, Dr. Thomas Kite prepared an updated print edition which presents all 230 canons in a familiar score format for ease of reading. This edition can be paired with A Companion to Classical Canons, an eBook available online. Here teachers will find all the contents of the print (score form) version, as well as these additional resources to help with lesson planning.
Antal Molnár gave music educators everywhere an enormous gift with this valuable collection. These new editions are important and useful tools that allow users to view music in a variety of formats. Furthermore, they support learning to read music, encourage new ways of thinking about music, and provide suggestions for logical pedagogical uses for learners of all ages.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Thomas Kite is a retired music professor now writing music pedagogy materials for teachers. As a supervisor of music education students at the University of Arizona, he continues to be active in his field. His degrees include a Doctorate in Music education and theory (University of Houston), a Master of Kodaly Music Education (Holy Names University) and a Bachelor of Music (organ) from California State University, Northridge. He is also attempting to learn Hungarian.

---

Singing Canons Selected from Molnár’s Klasszikus Kánonok

Type of Abstract (select): Workshop

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Join us to sing selected works from Molnár’s Klasszikus Kánonok, a collection of 230 canons he
collected throughout his lifetime. This publication has been in continuous use in music education/Kodaly teacher training courses for almost 100 years with an end goal of helping teachers improve their musicianship using solfa. Many of these canons were originally set to text, although Molnár purposefully omitted texts in favor of a pedagogical aim of teaching solmization. In this workshop, participants will sing canons using a neutral syllable (or solfa, as comfortable) with the end goal of carrying a beautiful melody (maybe several) away from the
session. For the music education participants, they will be introduced to harmonic structure present in the canon, and how it can be useful in their classrooms.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Thomas Kite is a retired music professor now writing music pedagogy materials for teachers. As a supervisor of music education students at the University of Arizona, he continues to be active in his field. His degrees include a Doctorate in Music education and theory (University of Houston), a Master of Kodaly Music Education (Holy Names University) and a Bachelor of Music (organ) from California State University, Northridge. He is also attempting to learn Hungarian.

---

© New York Bartók Archives: The Lost Bartók Editions of 1958-59

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the publication history of Bartók’s music, understandably little attention has been paid to the editions prepared by the New York Bartók Archives in the late 1950s. Recently, a trove of these privately produced editions has come to light in the United States. Remarkably intact and well preserved after almost 70 years, this massive collection belonged to the New York Bartók Archives itself. An estimated 11 shelf feet of material has survived: over 475 individual copies of scores, representing a total of 41 individual works. The scores are preserved in their original Archives binders. Also preserved are those rarest of relics from 20th-century diazotype music publishing: original production materials, including onionskin master sheets. Each copy is marked “Published by / Béla Bartók Archives / New York N.Y.” They all bear one of two publication dates: 1958 or 1959.
My lecture today will provide a visual tour of these scores and their distinctive features. Most are pointedly stamped with a copyright symbol that identifies as their copyright holder “Victor Bator, Executor, Béla Bartók Estate.” As a group they show many signs of their larger purpose as legal chess pieces in the ever widening conflict over who controlled the copyrights for Bartók’s music during the Cold War. Their rediscovery represents a welcome complication to what we thought we knew about the publication history of Bartók’s music in the 1950s.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Carl Leafstedt is a musicologist on the faculty of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. A specialist in the music of Béla Bartók, he recently completed a book on the history of the New York Bartók Archives during the Cold War (Helena History Press, 2021). His first book, on Bartók’s opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, was published by Oxford University Press (1999). He has contributed essays and articles on Bartók’s music to a number of publications. At Trinity he teaches courses on 19th- and 20th-century music, and Co-Chairs the University's innovative Arts, Letters, and Enterprise program. He is currently working on a book about music in 19th-century San Antonio.

---

On the Making of a “Definitive Recording” of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
That the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 1955 recording of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is today viewed as a definitive source is perhaps well-known among scholars, performers, and enthusiasts alike, particularly in the United States. But how did it earn that designation, and what does that appellation really mean when numerous recordings of merit exist? For example, the work’s early recording history includes two others that may be considered “authentic editions,” as the conductors each had intimate knowledge of Bartók’s unpublished score and corrections. Koussevitzky’s 1944 live recording holds significance as the first and likely the only surviving one made in the composer’s lifetime, and Reiner’s 1946 recording with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was the work’s first commercial recording.
Drawing on numerous recordings, historical and contemporary reviews, and Reiner’s own writings and interviews, this paper offers a more nuanced understanding of the CSO recording’s enduring prominence. Improved recording technologies in the 1950s as well as the orchestra’s apparent musicianship certainly eschew potential “distortions,” lending to the recording’s perceived supremacy, but period perceptions of Reiner’s supposed insider knowledge of Bartók’s “intentions” among the musical press likewise bolstered its status as the unadulterated recorded standard. By situating the CSO’s recording in the context of these tangible and rhetorical factors, I suggest a critical assessment of its assumed authenticity, highlighting the concerted and constructed nature of the recording’s legacy and the “finality” of recorded editions themselves.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Sarah M. Lucas serves as Musicology Area Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Musicology at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (USA). Lucas also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Hungarian Cultural Studies, on the Board of Directors of the American Hungarian Educators Association, and as Secretary for the American Musicological Society’s Southwest Chapter. She earned a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Iowa (2018) and conducted dissertation research as a Fulbright affiliate of the Budapest Bartók Archives at the Hungarian Institute of Musicology (2016-2017).

---

The “Népi Crush“ Is Real: Hungarian Dance as Social Regulator in Rural and Urban Settings

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This study explores social and kinetic patterns built into the structure of a rural dance event and how they function/ed in the past, in current rural settings, and in the modern-day táncház or dance party. Drawing on dance and music analysis and recent studies, including Sándor Varga’s work in the Transylvanian village of Visa in the 1990’s, my own observations in Visa and the US/Canada in the past few years, and Anna Szekély’s (Janku) recent dissertation on the current táncház generation, I will show how dance rules and structure create a matrix in which social goals may be achieved. These include:
Maintaining social structure
Creating a social space for oneself
Finding a mate
Practicing negotiation with neighbors
Satisfying aesthetic needs

Analysis includes form and tempo changes, the use of space, and interaction between dancers and bands, as well as among and within couples. While it is easy to view dance rules as archaic, I suggest that they continue to function in the present for much the same purposes as in the past, on both sides of the Atlantic.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judith E. Olson (NYU, U Colorado) historical musicologist--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 Traditions of Music and Dance, 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: International Folk Dancing in the US, Balkan brass bands, and 19th-century German music/culture.

---

The Globalization of Kodaly-inspired Teaching: From Hungary to the United States

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály revolutionized music education by promoting music literacy through folk songs, singing games and high-quality art music. This “Kodály Concept” spread from Hungary throughout the world. This historical sketch focuses on the connection between the USA and Hungary in the globalization of Kodály-inspired music education.

Individual exchanges were a first step in introducing the Kodaly Concept in the United States. Kodály began his extensive international work in music education and composition in 1946. Americans Denise Bacon, Mary Helen Richards, Elizabeth Moll, and the “Ringer Fellows” (1968) including Jean Sinor and Connie Foss Moore came to Hungary. Hungarian music educators Péter Erdai and Katinka Dániel taught in the United States. Other Hungarians such as Erzsébet Szönyi, Katalin Forrai, Janö Ádám and Klára Kokas had a deep influence on music educators in America and throughout the world.

But this dissemination could not be done by individuals alone. It was aided by organizations. The Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest educated international students. The International Society of Music Education (1953) held their 1964 conference in Budapest and Kodály, Forrai and Szönyi were all long-term officers. The International Kodály Society, (1975) was the first non-governmental international organization in Hungary. Yearly sessions at conferences of the National Association for Music Education and the American Organization of Kodály Educators promote the Kodály Concept to practitioners throughout the United States.

And thus, the legacy of Zoltán Kodály lives on in Hungary, the USA and throughout the world.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Pamela Stover recently retired from the University of Toledo (Ohio, USA) after a 40-year teaching career spanning Preschool Music to University Graduate Research Faculty. In demand as a clinician and as a music education historian, she has taught or presented research throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. Stover was the 2020 Fulbright Research Scholar at the Zoltán Kodály Institute in Hungary. Her PhD was earned at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in music education with minor fields of pipe organ and church music.

---

George Herzog: A Hungarian Pioneer of American Ethnomusicology

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper highlights the contributions of George Herzog (1901, Budapest--1983, Indianapolis), one of the founders of American ethnomusicology, and draws attention to his under-researched personal archive housed at Indiana University’s Archives of Traditional Music (ATM IU), which he established in 1949.
Herzog arrived in the United States in 1925 to study anthropology under Franz Boas, bringing with him the methodological rigor of Hungarian folk-song research pioneered by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, with whom he had studied composition. His early professional training also reflected the German comparative musicological approach he acquired while assisting Erich M. von Hornbostel at the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv. After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1931, Herzog taught and conducted field research at the University of Chicago, Yale, and Columbia, before joining Indiana University, where he relocated his extensive field recordings. His pioneering work in ethnographic documentation and analysis significantly shaped the development of ethnomusicology in the United States, and several of his recordings are now listed in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
Despite his achievements, including two twice a Guggenheim Fellowships, Herzog’s career was curtailed by illness. He ceased publishing in 1951 and retired early. His extensive archive—including correspondence (notably letters from Bartók), transcriptions, and field materials—awaits systematic study and renewed recognition of its global significance.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Veronika Trotter serves in the Area Studies department of Indiana University libraries and is engaged in collection development, management, and promotion of Slavic and East European, Central Eurasian, and Middle Eastern Studies collections, as well as in reference services. Her interests include exploring rare books of the forementioned regions. Trotter has extensive pedagogical experience and regularly conducts enriching classes based on the resources of the university rare books and manuscript library for students of various disciplines. She frequently contributes her research to national and international conferences.

---