In the first of our three performances marking the 50^th Anniversary of the death of Zoltán Kodály, the Joyful Company of Singers conducted by Peter Broadbent and joined by internationally acclaimed Hungarian musicians, will perform at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden on 3^rd March in conjunction with the Hungarian Cultural Centre in London.

The JCS will sing Kodály’s very early Miserere (1903) and his first published work Este (1904) in a programme of a capella choral music that also includes his vivid and dramatic Jézus és a kufárok (Jesus and the traders) and the collection of folksongs from the Mátra hills, Mátrai Képek (both written in the 1930s) and his Ode to Music written for the Cork Choral Festival in 1963.

We will be joined by the Banchieri Singers from Nyíregyháza, whose members all studied at the famous Kodály School under Dénes Szabó. They will perform two works from the 1940s: Norvég Leányok (Norwegian Girls) and Szép Könyörgés (Beautiful Prayer).

Two outstanding young Hungarian string players complete the line-up. Dóra Kokas is one of the leading cellists of her generation and a founder member of the internationally renowned Kelemen Quartet, playing with them until  2015 when she left to develop her solo career. She will play the first movement of Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello of 1915, and will be joined by Júlia Pusker to play the first movement of the Duo for Violin and Cello written a year earlier. Júlia’s playing of the Bartók Sonata for solo violin at the same venue last season made a great impact. She has a burgeoning solo career, and has been chosen as St. John’s Smith Square Young Generation Artist and Making Music Young Concert Artist. Both studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and continued to study in London, Júlia with György Pauk at the Royal Academy of Music, and Dóra at the Razumovsky Academy with Oleg Kogan.

For concert timings and ticket details, click here.