SOUTHEAST TO HOLD HUNGARIAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Southeast Missouri State University will be holding a "Festival of Hungarian Music" March 23-26. The festival will focus mainly on aspects of Hungarian wind music and some of the developments in Hungarian music in the last 10 years.

According to music professor and festival coordinator, Dr. Robert Gifford, Hungarian wind music is a special, distinctive kind of music, using elements of folk and gypsy music. As such, it deserves special attention.

In conjunction with this festival, Southeast will be visited by Lazlo Marosi, a professor of music and conductor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary; Gabor Mihaltz, professor of clarinet and chair of the Wind Instrument Department at the Franz Liszt Music Teacher Training Institute in Budapest; and Lujza Tari, one of Europe's leading ethnomusicologists.

The visitors will be giving guest lectures to Southeast students and faculty Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday in Brandt Hall Mihaltz and Tari will present a Clarinet Master class and clinic for Southeast and area school students. This class, open to Southeast and area school students, allows students to come and play for the visiting professors. The professors will then comment upon the performances and give instruction on how to improve.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday in the University Center Missouriana Room, Marosi, Mihaltz and Tari will be present for an open forum entitled "Political and Artistic Climate in Eastern Europe: Past, Present and Future." This forum is to give students and faculty an opportunity to ask questions and learn about the political, social and artistic side of eastern Europe and how it has changed in the past decade.

At 8 p.m. Friday, March 26, a combined concert will be presented in Academic Auditorium. This concert will feature the Southeast Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Jackson High School Symphonic Band. Marosi will conduct and Mihaltz will play clarinet.

Rehearsals for the concert will be held at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Brandt Hall room 200, and then Tuesday through Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Academic Auditorium. All Rehearsals and lectures are free and open to the public.

Born in 1960 in Sarvar, Hungary, Marosi learned to play the piano early in childhood. He has traveled extensively as a guest conductor and lecturer throughout the world, including five visits to the United States. In addition, he has researched in the International Society for the Promotion and Investigation of Band Music and is currently serving on the Council of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.

Born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1944, Mihaltz played clarinet by the age of 12 and later graduated from the Academy of Music in Budapest. Mihaltz has toured throughout Europe as a featured soloist and with orchestras on several occasions. Since beginning to teach clarinet in 1969 at the Music Teacher Training Institute of the Academy of Music, Mihaltz as served as the school's director and has been named Clarinet Expert of Pest County. He is married to Tari, and they have two children.

Tari specializes in the study of Hungary's instrumental folk music, inter-ethnic relations, minority cultures and amateur peasant brass bands. She has lectured at universities in Austria and Germany, taught at the Bela Bartok Secondary Music School for Hungarian Folk Music and served as the President of the Hungarian National Committee of the International Council for Traditional Music of Unesco. Tari is widely published and has been featured by the Hungarian State Broadcasting company as an expert of folk music and art music with folk origins.

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