OCTOPUS

The kids-loving programme-bouquet of the Pannon Philharmonic in the Kodály Centre

 

The Pannon Philharmonic collects all children’s and family events and activities under the umbrella title octOPUS. The term 'OPUS' is well-known in classical music but lesser known to children and young people, means 'WORK'. Listening to, becoming familiar with and taking in a musical work, a composition, can make our lives more complete.

An eight-tentacle octopus is scary, but it might be the kind that guides you with its many arms to a spot where the dark and unknown depth of the ocean turns into a thrilling and colourful universe worth knowing better. We ask parents and grandparents to bring their kids to the Kodály Centre just as they teach them to swim and dive or admire the zoo's aquarium so that they can learn about music imbuing their lives.

We are all different: in age, shape and personality, just like music pieces. Our octOPUS programme is ready to give a helping hand to all who would be keen to learn about classical music. Loving music is natural, but we, adults, are responsible for evoking children’s interest in classical music and their desire to attend concerts. Concerts are digital detox as well: while listening to music, we are not playing around on our gadgets, our internal imagination becomes richer, and our nervous system unnoticeably enjoys the beneficial effects of music.

Thanks to the age group structure of the children's activities, the "tentacles" of the Pannon Philharmonic collected in an event bouquet provide the youngsters with musical experience by their maturity level. The little ones are gradually prepared to listen to music in silence, relying on their ears and internal visual imagery. We, adults, can help our kids in this endeavour by choosing for them activities corresponding to their age. Before the activities, we should take them to the toilet, give them some snacks and drinks, and then, for the duration of the concert, we will stop doing so. At the beginning of the activity, we turn off our mobile phones, we are quiet, and if our youngster is not listening and is disturbing the production or the others, we quietly remind him or her of the rules. The audience of a music event is a true community. We create the silence, the cradle of music together as well as the inclusion evolving in tranquillity.

Besides the events for children, the adult concerts of the Pannon Philharmonic can be attended by children and teenagers between 6 and 18 years free of charge, either with subscriptions or individual tickets. During the concerts of the Pannonicum Series, a musical and handicraft Eco-Friendly PlayRoom awaits kids older than three.

We are looking forward to seeing you all! Let’s jump into music head-on!

 

Belly Tunes - for your yet unborn babies and for mums

True to the teachings of the great Hungarian music educator and the eponym of PFZ’s home building, Zoltán Kodály, the orchestra pays attention to babies already in their mums’ wombs. In their new series specially created for them, the ensemble awaits mums-to-be. The purpose of the programme is to help young mothers focus inside themselves and their yet unborn babies, to express their inner rhythm and inspirations evoked by music in words, movement accompanied by rhythm instruments, nursery rhymes, songs, speech, movement and visual arts. The series is led by the music educator, Zsuzsanna Hrubi. All sessions set off by listening to the orchestra’s dress rehearsal in the concert hall of the Kodály Centre, and then they continue in a more intimate space.

What will happen to you, your heart and the baby you carry if you come along on this adventure? We sincerely hope that each moment of it will give a heart-warming feeling.

We invite you to come along on a thrillingly creative journey, which may place the decisive nine months of your life into a new perspective. Our Belly Tunes Series – focussing on the fundamental experience of cradling and the heartbeat as fundamental musical rhythm – will help future mums consciously spend and self-develop me-time while enabling them to tune into the life-long miracle of motherhood.

We welcome mums with their babies in their bellies onto an “inner walk”, where following a live music experience, they can process the music with the help of a music therapist and connect it with the highly emotional state of pregnancy. We provide a space of security and support for the immersion into the complex feelings of expectancy, insecurity, happiness and completeness while strengthening the bond and interaction between babies and mums. Music gives the inspiration for all this, but afterwards, you can enter the processing stage with various art forms, such as visual arts, rhythm games, singing, improvisation, and verbal and non-verbal techniques. No musical training is necessary.

Who will be your guide on the journey?

“Music in my soul, from my soul, with my soul – this is how we are together” 
(Zsuzsa Hrubi)

I have been working as a special education teacher and music therapist for 35 years. Within special needs education, I work primarily with children who need help with their learning and other difficulties and whose parents need support and guidance. I do believe that each of us has a path of their own, which is sometimes taken with the help of others. I experience more and more that developing our spirits and healing our souls are crucial and necessary above all else in this world. The potentials provided by music are infinite not only in self-development but also in establishing contacts, trust, emotional help and experiencing feelings. We create a beautiful chain of pearls in each session while keeping these ideas in mind, which help us see our pearls shiny.

 

PASSPORT FOR NEW-BORN BABIES

New-born babies from Baranya, Somogy and Tolna Counties automatically receive the small gift of the Pannon Philharmonic right in the hospital, their Passport to the World of Music. In this passport, illustrated by the graphic designer Szonja Ferling, they can collect stamps from their very first concert visit and will receive gifts from the orchestra from time to time.

If you have a newborn baby in your family without a Passport to the World of Music, don't hesitate to ask for one in the ticket office of the Kodály Centre.

Beanbag for nursery school kids 
A bag of classical music - for the youngest music fans

The Beanbag concerts are cosy, intimate, vibrant and magically lovely events in the Kodály Centre. The jumpy-playful part is led by the music therapist, Zsuzsanna Hrubi. Not even absent sick or whiny toddlers need to miss out on the activities, as they are streamed online. Siblings are especially welcome to attend the Beanbag concerts on Saturday, which take place simultaneously with our Snail's Shell sessions for kindergarten kids. This way, children of various ages can come and enjoy music at their own levels.

Should you not able to make it to the concert, either because you don’t live in Pécs or your young ones are sick, you can still join our weekly Beanbag sessions online, listening and playing along with it.

The Pannon Philharmonic encourages parents and children to come and listen to live concerts. At the same time, they also do their best to provide valuable and high-quality online content. For the youngest, there has been created a tone-recognition game www.babzsak.pfz.hu well-suited for entertaining them during tedious waiting periods on rainy or cold winter days. The instrumental melodies used in the game are played by the musicians of the Pannon Philharmonic.

 

Snail’s Shell for Kindergarten Kids

The trombone player, Szabi Kiss and his wife, the saxophone player, Zsuzsi Szendrői, have been hosting the interactive Snail's Shell Series of the Pannon Philharmonic, presenting various formations, for many years. There, kindergarten kids have the chance to learn about silence, rhythm, the parts and instruments of a symphony orchestra. The Snail's Shell Series take place twice on Saturdays. As a great new opportunity, now younger brothers and sisters can attend our Beanbag concerts while their siblings are enjoying the later Snail's Shell sessions. All families are warmly welcome!

Today, already kindergarten kids nag their parents for playing on their laptops or phones. The Pannon Philharmonic has developed a high-quality kids’ game, which introduces children to the various instrument groups of the symphony orchestra and the universe of a conductor or the Kodály Centre as if in a fairy-tale. In the game illustrated by the brilliant graphic designer Sada Dézsi, the mini-productions featuring the various parts of the orchestra play the popular and well-known melodies of tales. For the web-based games, please visit www.csigahaz.pfz.hu.

On our YouTube channel, you can see the online version of our Snail's Shell Series presenting four instrumental groups, or you can see its stream version by clicking HERE, if you are in no state to go outdoors.

For those parents who wouldn't want their kids to play with a web-based game, we warmly recommend taking home our free-of-charge paint book for kindergarten kids illustrated by Szonja Ferling from our ticket office.

 

FANTASTICAL CLASSICAL FOR SCHOOLKIDS

A Fantastic Carnival
25 FEBRUARY 2023
SATURDAY 6.00 PM

Come to our Fantastic Carnival with fancy dresses, a raffle and exciting gifts. If you come wearing a fancy dress and buy a ticket, you are automatically entitled to a raffle ticket too. Slip into your fancy costume from school, and you'll have a double chance to win our grand prize. We can chase away winter only together, and we, on our part, are ready to do so with a savage party.

We will turn the concert hall of the Kodály Centre even more atmospheric with carnival decorations and beanbags.

The event's host is Krisztián Horváth, who will guide the audience through the world of music as a brilliant tour guide, not hiding from them the most important and funniest details. Even some animals will join our Carnival, as Camille Saint-Saëns shows his music. Initially, he meant The Carnival of the Animals as a joke: he wanted to make fun of his fellow musicians, popular tunes and even the pianists suffering from too much practice. His original intention turned into a unique carnival, and the universe of this work showcases extremely well how the double bass can imitate the elephant and how the tortoises dance in a can-can rhythm, evoking a smile on everyone's face.

The book with the identical Hungarian title published by HVG Books comes to live in the Kodály Centre. It is worth buying it in our ticket office or on our webshop, then turning its pages, reading it and listening to the musical illustrations recorded by the Pannon Philharmonic. If you, however, long to experience something live, you are warmly welcome to three Fantastical Classical concerts in the Kodály Centre. This year, we will even have a Carnival concert! Although The Nutcracker is not part of the subscription, don’t miss it either!

As a subscription holder, you will have a 30% discount on the book purchased in the ticket office of the Kodály Center.

 

Fantastical Classical for Schoolkids
20 MAY 2023
SATURDAY 6.00 PM

You must know the feeling of hearing a familiar melody without knowing what it is. And then it bugs you so much that you feel you must shazam it. Now, you won’t need to. In fact, connected to catchy stories, it will be much easier to memorise the names of their composers, as, at this concert, there won't be a single melody you don't know either from commercials or ringtones. How do they sound in their original version? What is the added value of live music? What turns a melody into a hit? Do we expect serious answers to our seriously classical musical questions? It is not decided in advance. In fact, we’ll see that classical musicians aren’t famous for their seriousness either. Let’s get to know the most melodious classical music!

The Series’ host: Krisztián Horváth choral conductor, pianist, and composer

Krisztián will act as the host of all three concerts. The Pécs-based audience might be familiar with him as a choral conductor and pianist or might have encountered his name as the composer of musical theatre pieces. Many, however, are not aware that Krisztián is the head of an art school, and with his great sense of humour and casual style towards his students, he has been very successful as the host of numerous youth concerts. Let's welcome him as a new partner of the Pannon Philharmonic.

The book with the identical Hungarian title published by HVG Books comes to live in the Kodály Centre. It is worth buying it in our ticket office or on our webshop, then turning its pages, reading it and listening to the musical illustrations recorded by the Pannon Philharmonic. If you, however, long to experience something live, you are warmly welcome to three Fantastical Classical concerts in the Kodály Centre. This year, we will even have a Carnival concert! Although The Nutcracker is not part of the subscription, don’t miss it either!

As a subscription holder, you will have a 30% discount on the book purchased in the ticket office of the Kodály Center.

 

FLIRT Series

Autumn Blue
Jazz rhapsody with a Russian symphony
03 MARCH 2023
FRIDAY 7.00 PM

Do you know what paints a rhapsody blue? Most probably, a wrong translation... Regardless of this "slip", Gershwin's epoch-making piano piece eliminating the boundaries of jazz and classical music in mere three weeks is in an exciting partnership with the contemporary composer, Ribnikov's symphony created from Russian rock operas and movie soundtracks.

You don’t consider yourself a serious classical music lover? You take movie scores and jazz seriously, instead? In the first half of the concert, you can hear a few of Gershwin's solo and orchestral piano masterpieces. Their irresistibility soon carried them to the classical concert halls. An example of this is the Rhapsody in Blue, which is by no means “blue” in the sense of the colour. Following the intermission, we can listen to a contemporary movie composer Alexey Ribnikov’s symphony, not written for a film but for the concert stage. At the same time, the title Simfonia Tenebrosa (Dark Symphony) can allude to your imagination turning into a movie screen at this concert, and after “blue”, you can have a “dark” plot coming to life on it.

Do you also get sometimes lost in the jungle of information, downloads and playing lists? Do you feel disorientated in the field of classical music? If you don't know what to choose from pieces all with unfamiliar titles and have no idea who is a really good performer and which orchestra you can trust, come along with us in the 2022/23 Season, and we'll help you meet the Right One(s)!

Works, soloists and conductors "fit to flirt with" will present you with evergreen pieces of various styles written long ago or recently. At the end of the series, we'll be lying on a meadow under a starry sky and going on a journey of dreams so that music can leave promising and pleasant traces in your heart, similar to a thrilling flirtation.

The Media Partner for the FLIRT Series is Made in Pécs.

A Summer Night
Dreaming under a starry night
19 MAY 2023
FRIDAY 7.00 PM

Francis Poulenc: La Voix humaine (The Human Voice)
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Zita Váradi – sopran
Conducted by: Zsolt Hamar

We can be certain that Zsolt Hamar's creativity will make us fly on the wings of our imagination under a starry sky, dreaming freely at the final concert of the series while listening to our heart!

Two very special theatre pieces will be staged this night. The first is Francis Poulenc’s one-act opera, The Human Voice, with a single character, a woman, talking on the phone. The piece based on Jean Cocteau’s text shows a conversation on the phone, but the audience can hear only one side of it. The conversation takes place between two lovers having just split up. The lady has attempted to kill herself, but with all her strength, she holds on to life and the frequently interrupted telephone line. The second half of the concert has Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in store, taking Shakespeare's eponymous comedy to the world of music theatres. Although the Wedding March is highly popular, the work is rarely seen in its entirety or on stage.

Do you also get sometimes lost in the jungle of information, downloads and playing lists? Do you feel disorientated in the field of classical music? If you don't know what to choose from pieces all with unfamiliar titles and have no idea who is a really good performer and which orchestra you can trust, come along with us in the 2022/23 Season, and we'll help you meet the Right One(s)!

Works, soloists and conductors "fit to flirt with" will present you with evergreen pieces of various styles written long ago or recently. At the end of the series, we'll be lying on a meadow under a starry sky and going on a journey of dreams so that music can leave promising and pleasant traces in your heart, similar to a thrilling flirtation.

The Media Partner for the FLIRT Series is Made in Pécs.

 

INSTRUMENT-TAMER FOR MUSIC SCHOOL KIDS

The host of the series is the violinist and concertmaster of the Pannon Philharmonic, Márta Deák

Being able to play an instrument is a super-ability, but unfortunately it doesn't work as a magic trick. Instruments need to be tamed. Those children who can delight others with their music will be superheroes, as they will free people from their everyday treadmill, the attacks of anxiety and the persistent invasion of noises. Music is in their hand. The concertmaster of the Pannon Philharmonic, Márti Deák, and her colleagues are launching a new programme for music schools. In the practice workshop of the Instrument-Tamer, the members of the symphony orchestra will engage kids in the daily life of musicians so that they can learn and make music together. This programme opportunity will be announced to the management and teachers of music schools. We strongly encourage the cleverest instrumentalists to apply to perform at our Masters and their Pupils Series. On the stage of the Kodály Centre, in the security provided by the musicians of the Pannon Philharmonic, the first symphonic stage performance will be an unforgettable experience.

Further details of the programme will be announced in the spring of 2023 on PFZ’s homepage.

 

MUSIC STUDENTS READY TO SPREAD THEIR WINGS

The maestro in charge of the Masters and their Pupils Series is the conductor András Vass.

The Pannon Philharmonic helps young instrumentalists and singers in several ways. The music school pupils and music students ready to spread their wings, just about to a symphonic stage for the first time, are surrounded by the Grand Hall of the Kodály Centre, similar to a safe nest. Our Masters and their Pupils programme mentored by András Vass will present a vast artistic horizon to the young musicians.

Within the partnership between the University of Pécs and the Pannon Philharmonic, the instrumental students of the Faculty of Arts can take part in the orchestra’s work in the form of an internship for credit. Exam performances of opera students are supported by the orchestra’s management. Within the long-established partnership with the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, the Pannon Philharmonic has accompanied young talents, such as the young conductor Martin Rajna, in Budapest for years. This season, the Kodály Centre will welcome the symphony orchestra of the Liszt Academy playing under the baton of the conductor Gilbert Varga.  

Aria Evening
Aria concert of the opera students of the Faculty of Arts, University of Pécs
15 APRIL 2023
SATURDAY 6.00 PM
 

The University Orchestra of Pécs – symphonic orchestra

Conducted by: Balázs Kocsár, recipient of the Liszt Award

Veil-Play
17 MAY 2023 WEDNESDAY
7.00 PM KODÁLY CENTRE

Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade

Ádám Balogh – piano
Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra

Conducted by: Gilbert Varga

Masters and Disciples
14 JUNE 2023 WEDNESDAY
7.00 PM KODÁLY CENTRE

Conducted by: András Vass conductor

Today, the city of Pécs has become a central point for nationally and internationally recognised musicians. For this reason, it's worthwhile to pay attention to the Pannon Philharmonic's Masters and Disciples talent support program, securing orchestral opportunities to introduce talented young musicians to the stage. Listeners could hear Misi Boros solo for the first time during his performance on the Kodály Center's stage in this series, and since then a growing number of talents have been discovered and put in the limelight thanks to the program. Young talents show what they are capable of as soloists, accompanied by an orchestra in front of a wide audience. Conducted by András Vass.

 

Science seem to back up the fact that music is no luxury article but a fundamental need for the soul and the spirit, just like Vitamin C for the body. 

Conductor Bence Uzsaly and his mother, the choral conductor and education researcher Rita Pécsi Uzsalyné

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