168 óra: Songs of humanism

One of our most successful peers, a young folk music singer. She sings European and Eastern songs, and songs made out of poems. She is a recurring, regular guest of the most popular groups, and she frequently gives concerts with her own quintet. She has published three solo albums inspired by her bio. She was members of the Athens cultural olimpics international group. She is thirty years old this year, her next disc is coming up in France. She has won the Aphelandra-award, which is seen as the civilian acknowledgement of humanism.

168 óra (2006.05.09, 2006. évfolyam, 18. szám)

Earlier you said rather vaguely: you gained self-confidence after very painful experiences, but you never regretted having them. Would you explain more mundanely?
I got slapped on the face in the profession, but I did not regret these slaps. They came at the right time. I want to be better as a person, not only as a singer.

Were you taken advantage of, were your abilities overlooked?
I had hard times looking for masters. Of course there are people to whom I am deeply indebted. However my real masters are rather „virtual”.

Many artists of your generation have reported similar things.
I am not sure that the problem is with masters. The search for masters is really a search for self. Béla Hamvas expressed it in Carneval: shouldn’t we go on searching till we find ourselves?

Where did you start up? Egyes életrajzokból azt is gondolhatnám: tizenhat évesen „szállt le” közénk, amikor beiratkozott a fővárosi Apáczai-gimnáziumba.
My mother’s father was a gipsy playing the bass-viol, but I am otherwise from a Hungarian family. I was born in Makó and then we moved to Bag. I am from a region populated by Hungarians, Serbs, Rumanians, and gipsies.

In Bag where did you leave?
Our house stood at the border of the village. The closeness of nature gave the best experiences of my childhood.

Main street run to the field, or another line?
The latter.

Did they live in poverty?
Of course. We cultivated the land. For me the village reality was curiously ambivalent, singing in the Bag school, dance rehearesals, and then we went off to work the meadows. I don’s see any village nostalgia in this, since I personally went through all of this. Exactly for this reason it was a great change and break when I got to Pest, to Apáczai high school. I also needed time to get back to the family. I was already giving concerts regularly for quite a long time, but my mother still worried when I will have a decent job. Now she is proud of what I am doing.

The Bag elementary school could be an important basis.
Elemér Muharai, the legendary teacher of the 1950s formed the school dance group. When I got there at age six, it was lead by Szépfalviné Igló Éva, who is also an outstanding expert. The Pest highschool was my mother’s idea. She was a strong character, who saw through things despite our simple existence. She knew that there was a school in the capital, where the children of workers and peasants are supported. She could have plans with me, I wasn’t a bad student. From sixth grade, for instance, I got right into eighth grade.

I can’t find cold reason in your songs.
It is a paradox, but I inherited the deep sentimentalism from my father. He was the first man, who I saw crying. It happened during a school presentation. I was in a stage show, the program was still going on. I was sitting on the edge of the stage, and I saw my father with tears in the corner of his eye. As a little girl, I was surprised. Since then, I know that he went through a catharsys.

How did it feel to move to Pest?
I was a wild colt for many years. Looking for freedom. In time I realized, that freedom did not mean a complete rejection of the laws. The longing for liberty, however, can deeply disturbs people who don’s have such longing. After being in harmony with myself, however, I can understand these people too.

When in highschool, you joined the Bartók dance group. At age sixteen, you set out for a life of musician with the Zurgó music group. Your became constant guest for several world music and folk groups. You are making new CDs inspired by your bio, together with Palya Bea Quintet. Today you are known before an international audience. Do you handle success easily?
I started the job right in the depth of it. First I was invited to dance for Zurgó, however, the group’s conductor heard me sing. So we formed the group, and then separated, because someone else had an offer for me. I got feedback about my work, but I never felt myself talented. I felt clear that whatever got me interested, I had to internalize it, otherwise I wouldn’t do it well. I can give much more this way, than singing about things I never experienced. You have to be careful anyway: our profession can easily „inflate” your ego. Then it has to be puntured, like a balloon.

Is it that simple?
Yes, if you are not interested in the surface of success. I want to give, and not to take away others’ energy. I get a lot of letters, in which I see: I am on the right way. They write me about their interior liberation, and the fullness of their senses. An elderly French lady told me after a concert last time: „My girl, after listening to it I felt younger.” I am stunned that I achieved all this through my songs.

In your quintet you keep four men on the lead. Is it too much work?
Needless to say. Miklós Lukács plays the cymbal, Csaba Novák plays the bass viol, András Dés plays percussions, Balázs Szokolay Dongó plays the winds. They are great musicians, the cream of the profession. I have my methods to keep the group together, but the most important thing is to deserve their professional and personal respect.

At some point you mentioned that music is a bridge between people that can be used to teach. For instance, in teaching the disabled. But even in teaching human rights. How do you mean this?
I have mediator friends, who work on resolving conflicts between minorities and private persons. I gave a class in their last course, and it worked out really well.

Did you sing about equality?
We sang together of love and all. We danced together. Forty representatives of twenty nations in perfect harmony. They opened up spontaneously, and the participants became a community. Song is open heart, open throat, large breath. It should be taught to all of us. Nobody should be sent away, just because they are tune deaf.

How much do you see from life from your artistic perspective? Do you hear false tunes in public life?
I graduated from university in ethnic studies, during the previous elections I was in Paris with a scholarship. When I came home in the beginning of May, I saw friendships and loves breaking apart. Now both side would invite me to participate in their campaign, but I made up my mind not to participate. Since basically we are all the same. Music has to be taken in with our senses, and not according to ideologies.

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