HANGZAVART?

HANGZAVART? is a non-academic music academy – a laboratory for music education – that dissolves the false dichotomies constraining contemporary music-making: tradition and progress, intellect and body, freedom and rigour. It brings together musicians of every stylistic and institutional background, from early music to noise, from amateurs to renowned artists, who are deeply devoted to music yet find themselves outside the conventional paths. Since 2021 a European network has grown around it, led by young professionals, advised by established artists and expanded through Erasmus+ partnerships.

Its residencies are intense but playful laboratories: mornings of rehearsals and workshops, nights of open-ended jams, debates and experiments. Each residency becomes a self-organising ecosystem in which the participants shape the process as much as the mentors.

Summer course 2022: temperament

13–20 June 2022, Göd. The course explored temperament in both its musical and human sense: how the art of balancing and adjusting musical intervals, central to the development of Western music, mirrors our capacity to bring different perspectives and forces into harmony in creative work. Musicians and composers from Hungary, Romania and Serbia took part in workshops, performances and discussions on historical tuning practices and contemporary forms of collective creation.

Mentors: János Bali, Barnabás Dukay, Ákos Nagy, Ernő Rubik, Balázs Pándi and Eszter Bodnár. In partnership with Shoshin Theatre Association (RO) and Levegő – Vazduh – Air (RS).

Summer course 2023: autonomy

21–30 June 2023, Zebegény. 24 musicians, composers and sound artists from Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Germany asked whether artistic self-governance is still a viable pursuit: how can artists keep an authentic creative voice when both institutional and counter-cultural paths seem compromised? Traditional cultural institutions increasingly bend to market forces, while historical modes of resistance, from the avant-garde to DIY scenes, have often been absorbed into the very systems they once challenged. Through workshops, performances and collaborative experiments, the participants looked for models of self-governance beyond both institutional constraints and closed forms of underground resistance.

Mentors: János Bali, John Duncan, Péter Márton (Prell), István Rimóczi and Eszter Bodnár. In partnership with Shoshin Theatre Association (RO), Levegő – Vazduh – Air (RS) and KM28 (DE).

More about the network and its residencies: hangzavart.com.