1999 marks the beginning of international partnerships for BCC, and since 2001 the institution has joined several EU projects.
The project named Removing Barriers to learning for older people was devised in cooperation with our English, Irish and Austrian colleagues in 2002. In the framework of the program, the international team defined the barriers that constrained old people in learning, collected good examples and accumulated a vast amount of experience which led to the publication of a manual to the teachers of senior courses. On the basis of the team's newly developed training program, we organized a course in Hungary in 2005 which was attended by adult educators from 8 countries.
We have initiated international cooperation between different community cultural institutions in order to enhance their understanding of European Union projects and the issue of project management.
We have participated in several international projects so that we could provide community cultural organizations with up-to-date information with regard to youth work. We have organized several conferences to facilitate cooperation between different organizations that focus on young people as their target group.
Dear Guests, please be invited to our live stream festival at Fonó Folk Music Hall on Sat 15th and Sun 16th May, 2021.
Folk Music Weekend: A Slovak-Hungarian Folk Concert Series Live from Fonó
Six folk bands, two days, one venue. The Fonó Folk Music Hall in Budapest is featuring Hungarian and Slovak folk music bands on 15th and 16th May, 2021. Due to the pandemic situation the concerts are streamed online, open to view live from all corners of the world. The event series is about to make the threads of Slovak-Hungarian folklore motifs ever so tighter, to commemorate the 140th birth anniversary of ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók.
Program details at Fonó Folk Music Hall:
• 15 May, 2021
1:00 pm – Fonó Band (HU-SK)
4:00 pm – Bálint Vizeli and Friends (HU)
7:00 pm – Góbé Band (HU)
• 16 May, 2021
1:00 pm – Rustico Band (HU)
4:00 pm – Varjos Band (SK)
7:00 pm – Új Gereben Band (HU)
The Fonó Band is part of the second generation of the Hungarian “dance house movement”. Their concerts and albums feature a quality interpretation of traditional folk music from Hungary and the neighbouring countries.
Bálint Vizeli, winner of the 2017 National Folk Violin Competition, considers helping Hungarian communities abroad of great importance, and he plays at Hungarian dance houses in a number of European cities every year. He is a regular musician at venues like Fonó and the Hungarian Heritage House.
The Góbé Band generate novel but ethnic sound images by means of challenging the technical limits of their acoustic instruments. Góbé’s folk pop music is entertaining and contemporary, but at the same time preserves its traditional nature. This undefinable and elaborate “Góbé style” is the main characteristic feature of the band.
The Rustico Band, a trio formation, plays a unique type of chamber music based on Hungarian folk music motifs, and further enhanced by folk-style improvisations inspired by the moment.
The Varjos Band present the rather complex folk culture of the Carpathian Basin, through twentieth-century folk music collections as well as their personal experience. Hungarian folk music in Slovakia is in the focus of their attention together with folk music from Transylvania and present day Hungary.
The Új Gereben Band, formed in 2018, is the renewed version of the Gereben Band, which had been active for more than three decades. In the centre of their style is improvised folk music with a wide application of two citeras, accompanied by the koboz, the gardon and some percussion instruments.
The concert series is part of the “Living Cities and Developing Communities” project under the joint leadership of the Budapest Cultural Center and the Štúrovo Municipal Cultural Center. The project is supported by the INTERREG Slovakia-Hungary, Building Partnership Program, Small Project Fund.
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