on November 5, 2007
Following an interesting scientific talk by Fabio Grassi, 50 girls, aged from 15 to 19, filed into the IRB wearing traditional hungarian dresses and lined up along the rails of the first floor. Their Director, Szabó Dénes positioned himself in middle of the ground floor. With a simple gesture from his hand the girls sang in perfect unison without instruments or microphones. The traditional hungarian folk songs were interspersed with more modern choral music and the director took full advantage of the unique acoustic space of the IRB, at one point sending three soloists into the elevator to sing from the 4th floor.
The Pro Musica Choir was performing in Spain in an international competition and were looking for hospitality during the long bus trip to and from Hungary. In exchange for housing at the Bellinzona Ostello di Montebello, they agreed to perform at the musica e molecole event. It was truly remarkable as they got off the bus after 12 hours they wandered into the IRB for a rehersal. They seemed just like any other 50 teenagers just off a bus until the director moved his hand and they started singing!
The evening was sponsored by Studio Ciocca SA of Lugano.
Brief History of the Pro Musica Girls’ Choir
– Hungary – Nyíregyháza
Pro Musica Girls’ Choir was formed in 1986 to fulfill the special wish of former members who wanted to go on singing after leaving the world – famous Cantemus Children’s Choir.
In the same year they took part in the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition in Debrecen and won the first prize of their category, and the Grand Prize of the competition. Since then the choir has won a great number of prizes. Their greatest success was at the 10th anniversary of the choir, when they won the European Gran Prix, and two championships besides four gold medals at the 2nd Choir Olympics in Busan, 2002.
The members of the choir are studying in different grammar schools and universities all over Hungary. It is their love of the community and singing that brings them back to weekend rehearsals from time to time. The choir has 90 permanent members and travels for concert tours with 35-60 members.
Their repertoire extends from Gregorian chants to contemporary music containing the most beautiful pieces of music history. Besides the works of Bartók and Kodály, in their repertoire you can find the greatest pieces of the Renaissance and romanticism, as well as the works of contemporary Hungarian composers. The choir had the privilege to premier many new pieces composed especially for Cantemus.
Their voices are preserved by records, radio and TV –recordings. More than 10 CDs were published together with the Cantemus Children’s Choir, which gives a whole view about the Hungarian and European choral music.
Dénes Szabó – Curriculum Vitae
Dénes Szabó is considered to be one of the country’s leading choral conductor. He is also teaching music in the Zoltán Kodály Primary School. He studied music in Szeged, Miskolc, and Budapest. Dénes Szabó has conducted the Cantemus Children’s Choir and the Pro Musica Girls’ Choir successfully in numerous international choir competitions and has led workshops for music teachers and conductors at ISME conferences ( Australia- 1988, South Korea- 1992) at the MENC conference ( Washington- 1990) and at the IKS/OAKE conference ( Hartford USA- 1993). Several awards acknowledged his devoted teaching work; he was awarded the Liszt Ferenc-Prize in 1985, Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta -Prize in 1993, and Kossuth –Prize in 2000 in appreciation of his artistic achievements.
