Press Releases

Budapest, September 8, 2006

The Magyar Telekom Symphony Orchestra – continuing the highly successful traditions of the past years – is again teaming up with a world jazz star in a joint concert. After Bobby McFerrin and Branford Marsalis, the orchestra is appearing with Chick Corea in Budapest and Debrecen. The concerts will be held in December 2006 as a fitting end to the Mozart and Bartók anniversary year.

The concerts, to be held in the Budapest Congress Center on December 6 and in the Debrecen Kölcsey Center on December 8, are unique in several respects. Firstly, they will not be part of a European tour, but on our request, the artist will fly over from Florida specially for these events. Secondly, in the first part of the evening Corea will perform Mozart works with the Magyar Telekom Symphony Orchestra under conductor Domonkos Héja. In the second part of the concert Chick Corea will play jazz improvisations on the piano inspired by Bartók compositions. Béla Bartók is Chick Corea’s favorite composer, this is why it is so lucky that after three years of coordinating times, he finally manages to give these two concerts in Hungary exactly on the 125th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Tickets can be purchased for the concerts from the end of September in the ticket office of the Budapest Congress Center and in the Nagymező Ticket Office in Budapest, as well as in the ticket office of the Kölcsey Center in Debrecen, or online at www.jegymester.hu.

The chief sponsors of the production are T-Com, T-Mobile and T-Systems.

Chick Corea

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1941, the pianist began studying classical music at a very early age. According to many, he is the most influential jazz musician of the past three and a half decades, whether we are talking about free jazz, fusion or modern mainstream style. From the mid-1990s he also recorded classical music. In 1996 Corea and Bobby McFerrin, as singer and conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, recorded “The Mozart Sessions” CD which came out in the same year. In 1999 Corea composed his first piano concerto (Chick Corea Piano Concerto #1), which he recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

On the occasion of the Mozart year the city of Vienna requested him to compose another piano concerto (Chick Corea Piano Concerto #2) which was presented in the Vienna Opera House this year as the first leg of the “In the Spirit of Mozart” tour. In one of the concerts of the tour, in Dortmund, Corea was presented a European Classical Piano Award on July 10. This award is for lifetime achievement and it has previously been given to such outstanding musicians as Daniel Barenboim and Alfred Brendel. Corea is the first jazz pianist to receive the highly prestigious award.

Domonkos Héja

The young Hungarian conductor is one of the most talented representatives of his generation, he took his diploma in percussion instruments and conducting with honors. In 1993 he founded the Danubia Youth Orchestra, of which he is still artistic director. In 1995 he became assistant conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra with a Leo Weiner scholarship. In 1998 he won first prize at the 9th International Conducting Competition of Hungarian Television, and also won the prize of the audience and the George Solti special prize. At the Athens Dimitris Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition he won a special prize and the grand prize of the Chromaton orchestra that participated in the event. In 2003 Domonkos Héja was awarded a Liszt Prize. He regularly receives invitations from leading Hungarian symphony orchestras, and is a frequent guest with numerous foreign ensembles including the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra.