Reconnections - Joint concert by the music academies of Budapest and Jerusalem A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

In 2013, on the initiative of Ilan Mor, Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance began a programme of cooperation in the spirit of which the two institutions have organized a joint chamber music workshop – Reconnections – in Jerusalem and Budapest every year since. The artistic directors of the programme, which acts as a cultural bridge between the two countries, set their sights on intensifying chamber music workshop activities and putting on combined concerts. Participating students and coaching teachers meet for the first time at the beginning of the workshop, so that the mixed chamber music formations of the two academies have only a little time to learn the pieces. Two aspects are taken into account when it comes to selecting works: pieces from the classical repertoire in addition to performances of contemporary Hungarian and Israeli works. This year, ‘new music’ is represented by Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for wind instruments and a chamber composition by Yinam Leef, head of the Department of Composition of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.