Kultúra.hu

30Y, one of Hungary’s most popular alternative acts is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The band play a birthday concert at the Fishing on Orfű Festival and it will be joined by the actress Anikó Für for a show at the Palace of Arts in Budapest. Culture.hu asked ten questions from frontman Zoltán Beck on the occasion. INTERVIEW

The renowned baritone Thomas Hampson will be among the performers at the gala to close the season at the Hungarian State Opera at the end of June. He will sing excerpts from Simon Boccanegra and Macbeth. INTERVIEW

Principal conductor of the Hungarian State Opera House, János Kovács, is closing a busy season. The opera’s website shows that he has stood on the conductor’s stand 27 times already, and three performances of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg are still ahead.

The Hungarian pianist Balázs Fülei says there are three kinds of pianos: a helpful one, a willing servant; one ready to make compromises, ready to become a friend; and then there are those disagreeable instruments that require an extraordinary amount of energy to be tamed. Fülei, who has performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, spoke with culture.hu before a concert at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

The Hungarian baritone Péter Kálmán sang at the Zurich opera house for seven years before becoming a regular performer at the Hungarian State Opera in 2006. Culture.hu asked about his experiences.

Entering the Magyar House in Los Angeles feels like crossing a country border. Some men play Hungary's very own ulti card game in the bar and one immediately feels the scent of freshly baked pogácsa savoury scones and meat slices deep-fried in breadcrumbs in the restaurant. Some well-dressed young parents are engaged in conversation while their children play tag and say hello with a shy "szia" to strangers. President of the Hungarian House Miklós Pereházy is happy to speak about the cultural and social centre of Hungarians living in California.

The British director Peter Strickland has been making films since 1992, but his work was largely unrecognised until he made Katalin Varga in Transylvania.

Hungarian National Theatre director Róbert Alföldi is directing a production of Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, in which the title character convinces the women of Greece to withhold sex from their men to force them to negotiate peace and end the Peloponnesian War, for the Croatian National Theatre. Culture.hu talked with Alföldi in Croatia.

Arnold Schönberg's unfinished opera Moses and Aaron will be performed in its "entirety" - completed with a third act by the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis - in Budapest's Palace of Arts on January 16. Culture.hu talked with Koscis before the premiere.

Márton Méhes, the former artistic director for the Hungarian city of Pécs's 2010 European Capital of Culture programme and the deputy-director of the Hungarian House in Berlin, is the new director of the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna. Culture.hu talked with him at his new workplace.

The re-issue of the complete oeuvre of the Hungarian saxophonist László Dés is in the works, as is a new album of songs and a concert tour.

Márton Győri and Nóra Soós are two young Hungarian painters with a number of exhibitions, awards and study trips abroad behind them. They held their first joint show at the Friss Gallery last year. Culture.hu talked to them about their partnership and individual painting careers.

When the National Theatre announced its new schedule for the season, it caught many people by surprise that the actor Roland Rába had started directing. The shift to directing was not all that obvious. INTERVIEW

There are few world-famous handcraft artists in Hungary, and only one who is a watchmaker. Áron Becsei is only 30 years old, yet he is considered one of the best watchmakers in the world. INTERVIEW

Zoltán Nyári, a tenor at the Hungarian State Opera House had a double victory at the Opera Competition and Festival with Mezzo Television, organised by Armel Productions. A jury of professionals awarded him the best male performer prize and the audience named him best performer.

The city of Pécs's Pannon Philharmonic is planning to play a big part in the Pécs2010 European Capital of Culture programme, and the orchestra will celebrate its bicentennial in 2011. Musical director Zsolt Hamar left the orchestra unexpectedly in September, but Zoltán Peskó, a Hungarian who lives in Switzerland, soon filled the post.

I first met the Hungarian dancer and choreographer Pál Frenák several years ago, on a train. I learnt that he communicated with his parents as a child in sign language, and only later discovered the world of sound, then the world of movement. At the time we talked, Frenák was constantly redefining his art. Little has changed since.

After eight performances in the German city of Pforzheim, The Hungarian composer József Sári is bringing his opera Solar Eclipse, a piece, originally written in German, about the life of Arthur Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon, to Hungary. INTERVIEW