Dear Friends of Balassi Institute,

2013 was for us a very eventful year. Outgoing director Ágnes Fülemile led a small, but dedicated coalition of experts in putting together the Hungary Program, titled Roots to Revival, for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a daunting task by any standards. The Festival events received great responses from exceptionally large crowds and proved that Hungarian folk culture has a lot to offer to the present. At the same time, we continued to feature contemporary artists and cooperated with partners to present academic events which we hope increased awareness of Central Europe in the United States.

2014 will be a year of remembrance and looking forward as far as our programming is concerned. We will remember the many hundreds of thousands, mainly Jewish Hungarians but also other persecuted minorities, who perished during World War II, especially in the fateful year of 1944. We will also try to show in fall 2014 why the Great War, with its centennial this year, has been such a formative event for all of Europe and how this catastrophe for the continent has been challenging Europeans for a century to interpret it and overcome its trauma.

Finally, we will have good reason to cheer, as well: we hope you will join us in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Central and Eastern Europe from state socialism. While remembering, we also look forward. Hungary is brimming with talent, from startups to genre-defying artists. We would not be doing our job if New York audiences were not regularly presented with some of the most exciting performances from Hungary.

The winter season for us runs from January to March. In these three months, we present an exceptionally rich musical selection that features contemporary flute to jazz to Roma world music by some of the finest performers Hungary has to offer. If you know the names you are seeing in our prospectus, we know that you will attend the shows. If you do not, trust us and come see them - you will be missing out otherwise.

Please continue to follow our programming and let us know if you are aware of great Hungarian and Central European artists and cultural initiatives. You may choose to contact the office or like our profile on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter. On the next page, you will find all the information necessary to never again miss new creative talent from Hungary being presented in New York.

Sincerely, Gergely Romsics

Balassi Institute - Hungarian Cultural Center, New York City

Balassi Institute is a network of Hungarian cultural centers and cultural diplomats in almost 30 countries around the world, as well as the pre-eminent hub for Hungarian Studies and Hungarian language teaching. Balassi headquarters are based in Budapest, operating as a government agency, with its branches having the task of developing multidimensional cultural programming in symbiosis with their respective host nations and cities - in our case, the United States and New York.

The Hungarian Cultural Center in New York was founded by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture in 2001 to promote cultural relations between the two societies. It started its programming a few years later as the outcome of an exchange of amicable notes between the State Department and the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ensuring its status as a Foreign Government Office. Programs are organized with partners in academia and culture, including both venerable and cutting edge New York and other US institutions, as well as the organizations of Hungarian Americans. In keeping with the Balassi credo, we emphasize the importance of appearing in multiple spaces and with multiple profiles, trying to do justice to the complex and fascinating mix that is Hungarian culture.

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Gergely Romsics - Director

Eszter Tamás – Financial officer Zita Vadász – Curator

After a successful tour in 2013, Mária Majda Guessous, known as Mesi, returns to New York for a mini-tour with band-mate Gerzson Boros. Singer Mesi was born in Hungary, her father, however, hails from Morocco. Her unique cultural background has always been a source of inspiration for her, and helped make her much more than just an impeccably trained musician. The winner of numerous awards and scholarships, a graduate of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, and winner of the Grand Prize at the 2011 FOLKBEATS festival, Mesi burst onto the scene a few years ago. This winter Mesi is presenting her second album named ÖröMes / MeshMerized (2013) which recounts a personal journey through the enchanted worlds of folk music, crisscrossing the map from Morocco to Hungary.

Tim Ries and the East Gipsy Band will also be performing at the following venues in January: January 12 The Deerhead Inn Delaware Water Gap, PA January 15 The Regatta Bar Boston, MA January 17 Philadelphia Art Museum Philadelphia, PA January 18 The Rex Hotel Toronto Canada January 21 Hugh's Room Toronto Canada January 22 The Jazz Standard NYC, NY

Balassi Institute presents Rolling Stones saxophonist Tim Ries and the East Gipsy Band from Budapest, Hungary on January 14 at the Consulate General of Hungary. The performance will be a unique fusion of world music, contemporary jazz and traditional roma melodies.

EAST GIPSY BAND represents an exciting fusion format for creating unique and captivating music. Its members are highly respected representatives of jazz and roma world music. Accordingly, theirs is an adventure with the traditions of Roma music filtered through the sensibilities of jazz.

On January 20, Carnegie Hall will honor Karl Jenkins on the occasion of his 70th birthday, with the show The Music of Karl Jenkins: A 70th Birthday Celebration. The program, presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York, will feature his Stabat Mater, along with Benedictus from The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and the United States Premiere of his most recent work, The Bards of Wales. Balassi Institute is proud to support the United Choir of Dunaújváros who will take part in the performance as the Hungarian nucleus of the huge international ensemble of choristers and orchestral musicians from France, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the US.

On the eve before this performance, Balassi Institute, hosts Karl Jenkins, the Welsh delegation, DCINY, special guests and the choir at a reception to bring together those whose commitment to this project made it possible. The public is welcome to join the celebration at Hungarian House, 213 E82nd Street,starting at 6:30pm. Program Choral show featuring Hungarian composers and folk songs by the 73 voices strong United Choir of Dunaújváros and the dramatic reading of János Arany’s ballad, The Bards of Wales by John Asquith, Coach for the Welsh National Opera, Cardiff.

Balassi Institute co-sponsors the exhibition: “Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module” at the New Museum. The show is a composite of shuttles featured in Eastern

European science-fiction films from the Cold War period. In its structure and design, it recalls future fantasies from the socialist Eastern Europe side of

the Iron Curtain and explores the ideological role outer space played during this time. The exhibition will be on show from January 22 to April 13.

impressive list of artists from or currently based in Hungary. These include Miklós Erdély, Tamás Király, Société Réaliste, Orshi Drozdik,

The show will feature an

Zsuzsi Ujj, Tamás St. Turba and Katarina Šević among many others. A number of public programs will be taking place during these ambitious 3 months.

A conference, “Futures of Eastern Europe,” will open the exhibition on January 25 and 26. The conference will include a series of critical discussions exploring the ideological role that outer space played in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, accompanied by a day-long science-fiction movie marathon.

The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. New Museum continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

The New Museum @ Bowery

The project is curated by and organized by Lauren Cornell, Curator.

music pieces. On February 24, he will be stopping by Drom in the East Village, a stronghold of world music and definitely one of our fave venues in NYC. Come see a performance exploding with energy and full of nuance at the same time. On March 27, the trio will perform a special second show, playing East Central European Jewish music on the opening night of the Balassi programming cycle commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in Hungary. Subscribe to the newsletter to find out the details about this second, very different performance.

World Music Institute and Balassi Institute present the Gypsy Road to Brooklyn! a show by Romano Drom, one of the most prominent representatives of contemporary Roma music. With their unique sound and evident passion, the band has conquered audiences all around the world.

Romano Drom (“Gypsy Road”) exudes the soul and passion of the Roma people. They are one of Hungary’s top world music bands, and they sing in the original RomVlach language. With ­profound emotion and energy, Romano Drom plays both centuries-old melodies and modern compositions infused with Catalan rumba, Arabic and Balkans rhythms and pop.

Not a New Yorker? No worries, the band will perform in Boston, MA on Feb 21; in Philly on Feb 23 and in Lewisburg, PA on Feb 26. Find more details at www.culturehungary.org.

Kálmán Balogh is one of the foremost Hungarian cimbalom players, descending from a famous dynasty of Roma musicians. His virtuosity is matched only by his understanding and respect for his heritage. On his current outing, Kálmán Balogh, joined by Csaba Novák (double bass) and Róbert Lakatos (violin), is performing in a versatile trio format which permits both jazzier and world

Balassi Institute sponsors the upcoming NYC appearance of Gergely Ittzés, the outstanding flutist of the younger generation of musicians in Hungary. Following in the footsteps of greats such as István Matuz, Ittzés has built a reputation that extends to international concert halls and hubs of postmodernist musical experimentation.

On February 26, Ittzés will be joining Hiroko Sasaki of Bard College to perform in a recital presented by the Abby Whiteside Foundation at Carnegie's Weill Hall. The program will feature Debussy, Prokofiev and Pijper, among others.

On 23 February, to a very limited audience, Ittzés will perform contemporary, experimental and self-penned pieces for the solo flute. He will be joined in concert for flute duos by special guest Robert Dick of New York University, the inventor of the glissando mouthpiece for the flute. This program will be invitation only, with a limited number of seats available to newsletter subscribers on a first reply, first served basis. Watch out for our February newsletter to get a chance to attend this performance.

After his 2011 NY debut, which ended in an enthusiastic standing ovation, Ferenc Fehér returns with a new opus. Selected as “Priority Artists” by Aerowaves, the European cross-border dance network, Austria’s Navaridas+Deutinger and Hungary’s Ferenc Fehér take the stage at Abrons Arts Center as an exceptional double bill. For two performances, Fehér presents his enigmatic Stix 66. This newest adventure by self-taught virtuoso Fehér, winner of the Laban Award along with a host of international accolades, continues his boundary-defying work. Once again, he ties together his trademark style of dance after the demise or becoming impossible of dance, a self-composed minimalist electro score and unflinching commitment to ask piercing questions through movement about his and our existence in a single-act performance of exceptional intensity.

Julie Saul Gallery presents three exciting artists from Europe in a show that focuses on the dynamic of urban environments and its occupants, featuring high-tech digitally composed large-scale photographs and videos. One of the showcased artists, Adam Magyar creates photographs and videos in large cities around the world. In his Squares series he digitally combines aerial portraits of individuals who, in reality, were never in the same place.

Balassi Institute is a supporter of this independently curated event.

Unknown Stories: Jewish Hungarians in the Countryside and the Holocaust

In spring 2014 the Center for Jewish History with Balassi Institute will be presenting a series of screening on the occasion of the memorial year to commemorate victims of the Holocaust in Hungary. The screenings present various perspectives about this unparalleled catastrophe of Hungarian history, but focus mainly on the lesser known events of the countryside where half a million people perished.

The screenings, which will begin on March 27 on a special evening featuring a panel discussion with filmmakers, make up the first element of our programming cycle to commemorate victims and face up to history. Working with Grammy-award winning musician Frank London of Klezmatics fame, we are looking to present in late May a unique collaboration of Hungarian and US musicians to bring you the music of rural Hungarian Jews, as well as exhibitions and workshops that throw light on the once vibrant Jewish cultural and social milieu of Budapest, while also documenting the tragic fate and the crimes committed against this community.

March 26, 2014, 7.30pm | Paul Lewis, piano “Faced with such excellence, a mere critic can only abandon paper and pencil and listen to this heroic but deeply moving young artist with awe and amazement,” praised Gramophone of a recent recital by Paul Lewis. The talented pianist performs works by Beethoven, Mussorgsky and Liszt.

New York’s Carnegie Hall offers a wide range of Hungarian related events this winter. From Liszt to Kurtág, a beautiful selection will appear in the greatest concert hall of the City.

February 3, 2014, 8pm | Philadelphia Orchestra & Yannick Nézet-Séguin The Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of its Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin performs an electrifying Bartók piano concerto with Radu Lupu as soloist.

January 18, 2014 7.30pm | January 19, 2014 3pm Takács Quartet, ALL-BARTÓK PROGRAM Bartók has been a staple of the Takács Quartet’s repertory for decades, with the group's affinity for his music evidenced in each breathtaking performance. The string quartets Bartók composed over a period of 30 years have become a 20th-century musical touchstone. In the hands of the Takács Quartet, “the character and personality of the composer emerges with extraordinary intensity” (The Guardian).

March 23, 2014, 7.30pm | Artemis Quartet The peerless Artemis Quartet brings their exquisite playing to an exceptional program of quintessential quartets by Beethoven and Brahms, as well as a contemporary work by Kurtág.

Balázs Simonyi, director of Finale and winner of no less than 17 international awards for his film, curates a selection of Hungarian and Central European films for Balassi Institute. The two-night program features works that - like Finale - have minimal or no dialogue and finish with a bang, permitting a peek into the sense of humor and technological

prowess of the next generation of filmmakers from Central Europe. Watch out for screening times and subscribe to our newsletter or visit www.culturehungary.org!

Consulate General of Hungary in New York