„We are building bridges” – television interview with the President of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Andrea Vigh

The Bartók World Competition and Festival, which is to be held between 9 and 17 September 2017, is to commemorate and celebrate the 135th anniversary of Bartók’s birth. The Liszt Academy considers it its duty to proclaim worldwide and maintain Bartók’s legacy at a global scale. This is how and why the Bartók World Competition & Festival was born – as was pointed out by Andrea Vigh, the initiator of the event. She added that the founding institution intends to build bridges between cultures globally, and Bartók’s oeuvre is absolutely suitable to serve this purpose.
 

According to Dr Vigh, Bartók’s Hungarian-language and Hungary-related compositions are not easy to fathom by speakers of other languages, however. Still, she finds it crucial that the youth and music lovers world-wide can have access to the message of the composer’s oeuvre. The Bartók World Competition and Festival provides an opportunity for this within the framework of a musicology symposium, the thematic city tours or the special Liszt Kidz Academy organised for children.

This year, the first part of contest-series ranging over 6 years is the Violin Competition, whose international and highly acclaimed jury members await about 50 contestants from all over the world. The Preliminary and Semi-final rounds are open to the public free of charge, while music historians will give short introductory presentations on the performed works.

Finally, Andrea Vigh expressed her conviction that Hungary is a world power in music, but she must live up to this power; there is no other more beautiful and more positive message to be conveyed to the world than „with the healing power of music and with the engagement of youth, Bartók’s music will be bound to Hungary”, as this is where the entire musical oeuvre of our composer giant is rooted.  
 

For the full interview, click on the image.

A. U.