VIII. MiraTone Festival and Academy: Kurtág 100 - Hommages | Festive Concert

29 August 2026, 4:30 pm
FUGA Budapest Center of Architecture
1052 Budapest, Petőfi Sándor utca 5.

The MiraTone Festival and Academy, founded by violinist Miranda Liu, is filling Budapest with music for the eighth time this year. Over the years, the event has become a defining gathering place in the European classical music scene, where internationally acclaimed artists from around the world inspire one another and the audience.

A special evening for those who wish to discover how a century of Hungarian and European musical heritage comes together through the deeply personal yet universal voice of György Kurtág. In 2026, the musical world celebrates the 100th birthday of György Kurtág. The MiraTone Festival’s special concert is not merely a jubilee commemoration, but a personal musical portrait: an evening that highlights the masters, role models, and human connections that shaped Kurtág’s art.

The concert opens with music by Bach, whom Kurtág regarded throughout his life as one of the most important guiding lights in music history. This will be followed by works that serve as tributes, memorials, and musical messages: Kurtág’s homages, as well as compositions by those Hungarian masters with whom he shared close artistic and personal ties.

What makes this program special is that the audience gains insight not only into Kurtág’s world as a composer, but also into the history of an entire creative community. Alongside works by András Mihály and Endre Szervánszky, the concert features compositions Kurtág dedicated to them, allowing unique musical dialogues to unfold between generations and artists throughout the performance.

The evening culminates with the poignantly beautiful ‘Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky’, one of Kurtág’s best-known and most profound chamber music works. Composed of short movements, the piece is at once a remembrance, a confession, and a tribute - music capable of evoking entire worlds with just a few notes.

In addition to the artists of the MiraTone Festival, the concert will feature the MiraTone Ensemble, which consists of the festival’s professors, participants, and members of the Ukrainian Youth Symphony Orchestra. This collaboration beautifully reflects one of the most important messages of Kurtág’s art: that music is, above all, human connection, attention, and shared memory.