Batta visited schools in South Korea and Japan, while Devich went to China. The visits took place as the school celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of its founder and namesake, Ferenc Liszt.
?The Music Academy has fruitful and promising links with the Keimyung private university in the South Korean city of Tegu. Sándor Falvai recently taught a piano course and gave a concert there as part of the Liszt Year, and Norbert László Nemes, the director of the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét has also taught a very successful training course at the university,? Batta said.
The possibility of a joint master course in piano, flute, violin and composition has been discussed, and it could become a reality next spring, Batta said.
?The course would take place over five semesters. The first three would be held at Keimyung University under the supervision of Hungarian guest teachers who would stay there for four-week periods as part of the Liszt Year. The last two semesters would be held in Budapest. The talks are at an advanced stage and our South Korean partners arrived in Budapest on Tuesday to sign the detailed agreement,? the rector said.
In Japan, the Music Academy established links with two of the most important art academies as part of the Liszt School-Founder project, Batta said.
One is the state-run Tokyo University of the Arts or Geidai, whose deputy rector Kenji Watanabe studied at the Music Academy in Budapest in the 1970s. The other is the Tokyo College of Music (CRI), a renowned private university.
Joint master classes are planned with both universities thank to preparations that have lasted for two years, Batta said.
Devich visited Beijing on an invitation by China Radio International (CRI). The radio has a section that prepares broadcasts about Hungarian cultural events and organises concerts, he said.
CRI has organised concerts with the participation of the Music Academy?s teachers and students to mark the Liszt Year. Pianist and professor László Baranyay and his PhD student János Ferenc Szabó gave a concert in the events room of a cultural association established and maintained by Chinese people who have studied in Hungary.
?They organised some very interesting meetings for us and we also visited the coastal city of Xiamen which is famous for the Beijing Central Conservatory?s affiliate training school, which specialises in pianists. We listened to two of the 120 students and they were excellent players. We were in agreement that it would be good for them or other students to visit Budapest for further training,? Devich said.
The city?s symphony orchestra also gave a concert in honour of the Liszt Year.
Devich said that during his visit he had also heard an orchestra of nearly 100 members that played contemporary Chinese music on folk instruments, cello and double bass. He said he would propose to composer László Dubrovay, for whom this concept is not alien, to write a piece for the orchestra. Additionally, he said the 100-member Gypsy Orchestra should establish links with the Chinese orchestra because there are some unique similarities between them.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
