A lecture by music researcher Ágnes Kőry was followed by a performance of Kodály works by recent Music Academy graduates Ágnes Kállay (cello) and Katalin Csillagh (piano).
Hungarian-born Ágnes Kőry is the founder and director of the Béla Bartók Centre for Musicianship, London, where specialised music studies including performance skills are offered and scholarship is fostered. The Béla Bartók Centre for Musicianship (BBCM) offers comprehensive music education for amateurs and children of all ages (from 20- month-old toddlers to postgraduate students) as well as providing training courses to further the skills of professional musicians. BBCM training is supported by some of the world's greatest musicians: the late Sir Georg Solti was the first BBCM patron; other BBCM patrons include Sir Charles Mackerras, Norman Bailey CBE, Janos Starker, Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu and Professor Reinhard Strohm.
Kőry is a graduate of the Béla Bartók Conservatoire Budapest, Royal Academy of Music London (DipRAM) and the University of London (BMus, MMus,MPhil). She is a teacher, performer and also a researcher in the history of music.
Kőry's MPhil thesis on Bartók and Ethnomusicology was highly praised by the examiners for the University of London in December 2004. They considered the thesis of far-reaching in importance for future Bartók scholars and urged its publication. In May 2006 Ágnes Kőry was awarded the Béla Bartók Memorial Prize and in February 2007 she received the Pro Cultura Hungarica award.
Ágnes Kállay and Katalin Csillagh used to attend the same class at Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music Secondary School and went on together to the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where Katalin Csillagh graduated in 2005 as the student of György Nádor; Ágnes Kállay graduated in 2006 as the student of István Csurgay. During those years, besides giving solo concerts and participating in international courses and competitions, they also regularly played chamber music together.
Their development as chamber musicians was supported by internationally well-known teachers such as Balázs Szokolay, Géza Hargitai, Attila Némethy and Imre Rohmann. They regularly perform chamber music in a variety of popular music venues in Budapest, including the Nádor Hall, Óbudai Társaskör and Béla Bartók Memorial House, playing sonatas for cello and piano. Their repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary (Vivaldi, Boccherini, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Franck, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich as well as Kodály, and others).
Source: Hungarian Culture Centre London
