A guest appearance in Vienna, a jubilee gift concert for peace, thematic concerts in the Pesti Vigadó, Ádám Fischer's 75th birthday gala in the Müpa Budapest - all this is part of the varied program of the renewed Hungarian National Male Choir's 2024/25 season, to offer memorable and special moments to audiences at home and abroad.

The Honvéd Male Choir will be a member of the Prima Primissima Award-winning Honvéd Ensemble, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and will be known as the Hungarian National Male Choir from this season. The choir was originally founded as the Choir of the Honvéd Central Art Ensemble and has been active since 1949. The choir was formed with singers who were then military personnel, and over time the members were replaced by highly qualified professional singers, many of whom are in demand as soloists in the national and international cultural scene. The stable operation of the Honvéd Choir, led by Kossuth Prize winner Zoltán Zsuráfszky, and the choir's increasingly active presence in the national and international concert scene generated the need for the choir to redefine itself in its name.

"The name Honvéd Male Choir as a name meant a strong identity for us, but we felt that the time had come to communicate the name of the choir directly: the members of the choir are professional civilian singers who proudly represent Hungary as the second largest professional male choir in the world." - said Richárd Riederauer, choir director.

The male choir, renewed in name, has been invited to one of Europe's most prestigious concert halls, the Musikverein in Vienna, where on 13-14th of September 2024, under the baton of Petr Popelka, they will perform the monumental Gurre-Lieder by Arnold Schönberg, the composer born 150 years ago, accompanied by renowned performers from the Vienna Symphony. The concert celebrating the orchestra's 125th anniversary will be broadcast on ORF television.

Following the Vienna concert, the Hungarian National Male Choir will open the season with a registration required gift concert entitled “ON PEACE, LIFE, DEATH". The concert, held in the Országút Franciscan Church, will feature a selection of works by contemporary and classical composers such as Ilona Dobszay-Meskó, György Orbán, Liszt, Poulenc and Rachmaninov.

In addition to the year-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Honvéd Ensemble, the male choir will also perform on two other important anniversaries. In October, they will perform at a concert to celebrate Ádám Fischer's 75th birthday at Müpa Budapest, and in January they will celebrate Levente Szörényi's 80th birthday at the Liszt Academy.

The extremely popular interactive singing lessons continue: every year, the Hungarian National Male Choir holds sessions for children in the framework of the Petőfi Cultural Program, in cooperation with primary schools in several small towns, to show the joy of singing and music to the youngest children through direct experiences of playing music together. As returning guests at the graduation concerts of the choir conducting students at the Liszt Academy, the male choir has become an active participant in higher music education.

This season will also include the popular thematic concerts of the male choir, traditionally held in the Pesti Vigadó, and the ensemble will also appear in several co-productions. In collaboration with the Szeged Symphony Orchestra, they will perform Mahler's Symphony No. 2, and they will also perform two concerts with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra this season. In October, on the occasion of the All Souls’ Day, Cherubini's Requiem in D minor will be performed alongside a male chorus transcription of Barber's Adagio, while in January, János Vajda and György Orbán will perform their cantatas composed for the centenary of the First World War at the Liszt Academy in a concert entitled Hungarian Masterpieces, conducted by Gábor Hontvári. The concert will feature pianist Kevin Chen.

"Through consciously planned and consistent professional work and a multifaceted programming policy, we have become a key part of the classical concert scene. In Hungary and abroad, we have increasingly wide-ranging collaborations with the most prominent musical ensembles, as there are very few professional male choirs in the world. The literature on male music is very rich, and the repertoire is constantly expanding thanks to contemporary composers, who are constantly inspired by us. My unconcealed desire is to organise a composition competition where composers compose works specifically for the Hungarian National Male Choir, because it is no exaggeration to say that this male choir is a national treasure." - said the choir director.

09th September 2024

2024. September 09.