ROHMANN DITTA – SZŐKE SZABOLCS – SZALAI PÉTER TRIÓ
Lyrics by Robert Walser and Danyiil Harmsz will also be performed in this very special musical setting.
Ditta Rohmann is a Junior Prima and Artisjus award-winning cellist. She is an accomplished and passionate interpreter of the works of J.S.Bach and 20th century as well as contemporary composers. Currently a teacher at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, he performs as a soloist, chamber musician and guest of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He holds honours degrees from Miklós Perényi in Budapest and Ivan Monighetti in Basel. Previously, he studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Suren Bagratuni. He has honed his skills in master classes with Bernard Greenhouse, Frans Helmerson, Steven Isserlis, Ferenc Rados and András Schiff, among others. As a chamber musician, he has been awarded prizes at international and national competitions and has been a special prize winner of the Premio Trio di Trieste and the Orpheus Festival Zurich. Since 2008 he has had a cello by Jean-Baptiste Salomon from Paris, dating from 1770. He has also been boldly venturing into other musical styles (jazz, world music), as is evidenced by the duo formation he has been working with since 2014, together with SZŐKE SZABOLCS Artisjus award-winning composer SZŐKE SZABOLCS,was created in collaboration with a specialist in Balkan and oriental stringed instruments. They will explore the new tonal possibilities and unique, individual flavours of stringed instruments with very different histories and playing techniques: the cello, the gadulka and the sarangi, through the presentation of Szabolcs Szőke's compositions. During the performance of the works, the two soloists often make use of free improvisation. In some pieces, the cello and Ditta's singing voice are accompanied by the array mbira (120-note kalimba), another unique and magical instrument. Some of the compositions in the duo's repertoire have already been heard by audiences at the Opus Jazz Club, among others, in concerts with Trio Squelini. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that in this duo and in the entire DUETTI PARALLELI album, almost all the possibilities of the two stringed instruments' joint sound are revealed in all their richness and beauty. It is also no coincidence that the recording was made in the Patyolat/Próbaüzem hall, since this was also the venue of the duo's first joint performance. Rohmann Ditta is a versatile musician who can be seen as a soloist in large concert halls, improvising in world music formations, as a protagonist in joint productions with dancers, as a chamber musician and more recently as an actor.
Schedule
Szabolcs Szőke is a musician, visual artist and theatre artist in one. He studied classical music, then turned his interest to the special sound of stringed instruments (gadulka, sarangi, gusla), mainly from the East. At the same time, he designed and realised a number of rarely heard and lesser-known instruments in various theatre productions and concerts. He also worked as a visual artist, in solo and group exhibitions, and thus visual design within the theatre was very close to his heart. As a musician, he first started working within the theatre. His musical career as a soloist began with the Kolinda ensemble, which was particularly popular in France, in 1978-79. With this ensemble he performed successfully at numerous festivals and played, among others, on the stage of the Olympia in Paris and at the Théâtre de la Ville. In 1981, he formed the Makám ensemble with Zoltán Krulik, which is perhaps one of the best known in Eastern Europe for its synthesis of contemporary Hungarian music and various folk music forms. Later, in 1994, together with some well-known jazz musicians, he formed the TIN-TIN Quartet (from 2003 Quintet), which immediately became a huge success at the Budapest World Music Festival. In 2002 he founded the EKTAR ensemble. Szabolcs Szőke can be called without exaggeration one of the "godfathers" of Hungarian world music. "Gadulka Man" - as he was called by the artistic director of WOMEX, the world-famous musician-producer Ben Mandelson. The gadulka remains Szőke's most faithful companion to this day, but he also plays ethnic and chamber music, jazz and a unique fusion of these on dozens of exotic instruments, from the Indian sarangi to the African mbira, with the same depth and uncompromising sustain over many years.
Péter Szalai is a Hungarian percussionist playing North Indian classical music and one of the best Western-born tabla musicians of our time. He has been a guest performer on tabla and other percussion instruments on numerous publications. He is currently in demand for various jazz, ethno and fusion productions.
Rohmann Ditta - cello, aquaphone, vocals
Szabolcs Szőke - gadulka, sarangi, array mbira and composer of the pieces
Péter Szalai - cajon, cajonito, kalimba, bass kalimba, frame drum, aquaphone, small percussion instruments
Entrance fee: 1.800 HUF, student: 1.500 HUF (Volunteer ticket taker needed.)
Nyitott Műhely
The Open Workshop is a fine place, a place where many different kinds of people can feel at home, which is to say that there is something that is rare and difficult to create, the spirit of the place. This spirit is very sympathetic to me, because it means both that there are shows that interest me and that the occasional stew is okay. And that I'm likely to meet people there who I'm happy to meet, and it's not even out of the question that they're me. Such public (open) spaces are rare in Budapest.