International Relations: Kodály Teaching Staff's Courses and Visits Abroad in the First Semester of 2023/2024
Thanks to the EU Erasmus+ programme for cooperation and mobility, faculty members of the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy visited partner universities in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, to strengthen the academic relations.
THE NETHERLANDS:
Gyula Fekete, Vice-President of Research and International Affairs of the Liszt Academy and Judit Rajk, Director of the Kodály Institute visited the Royal Conservatoire The Hague in November. During their trip they met the Board members of the Conservatoire, and Suzanne Konings, Head of Music Theory Department, leader of the Music Education Kodály MA programme, who has a long-term relationship with the Kodály Institute, as she participated in several joint programmes with us. They also attended at the 50th General Assembly and Congress of the European Association of Higher Music Education institutions in The Hague, where bilateral and multilateral cooperation opportunities with the partner institutions were discussed. (read more about the event)
ITALY:
Dr Nóra Keresztes, our faculty member and musicianship expert visited the Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini in Catania in November, to open a new partnership with this university. She also participated in the "Ear Training in Progress 1st Edition Catania" programme.
Our piano professor Anikó Novák held a successful piano pedagogy workshop entitled "Piano Pedagogy based on Kodály Concept" in December at the St Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. The training was initiated by Franca Ferrari, teacher of music education at the Conservatory and Giovanna Karen Vagata, former student of the Kodály Institute.
TURKEY:
At the beginning of January there was a short course led by Judit Rajk, Director of the Institute and Zsuzsanna Takáts, one of our piano teachers, at the Marmara University in Istanbul. The Institute has been receiving BA and MA students from this university for years. The course was combined with a podium lecture, where works by Ferenc Liszt, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, György Kurtág, Gyula Csapó, Péter Tornyai, inspired by folk and liturgical melodies were introduced to the students and the professors of the Music Pedagogy Department, with common singing. There was also a meeting with the Head of the Music Pedagogy Department, Prof. Sibel Coban, and Prof. Nuri Tinaz, Director of the International Relations and Academic Cooperation Programmes.
Dr Nóra Keresztes at the Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini in Catania
AUSTRALIA
Katalin Körtvési was teaching at the Cuskelly College of Music in Brisbane at the beginning of January. The Kodály Institute has a long-time cooperation with James Cuskelly and his school. This has been the 10th occasion that Katalin was invited to be a faculty member of the annual two-week long Kodály Summer School. She taught the upper-level musicianship and conducting classes this time and led the female choir of the programme.
CHILE
Borbála Szirányi was teaching at the Kodály Institute of the Ibáñez Atkinson Foundation in Santiago de Chile at the beginning of January. The pedagogical director of the programme is the Kodály-expert Lydia Mills, among the instructors was the choir leader Jorge Fuentes, a former master’s student at the Institute in Kecskemét. The course also included a presentation on folk music by Carlos Miró who used to teach folk music in Kecskemét years ago.
CHINA
Also in January, the Chinese Kodály Seminar was organized for the third time, where Edina Barabás, Katalin Körtvési and Anikó Novák, returning guest professors of this seminar, held online workshops. The organizer of the event was Qiu Liping, a former student of the Institute, and among the teachers were Josephine Ang, also a former student of the Institute, and Susanna Saw, Vice-President of the International Kodály Society.
Katalin Körtvési with the female choir of the Kodály Summer School, Brisbane