Márta Ábrahám has been a returning guest of the festival with her very popular concerts given in the Cistercian Abbey Church in Kismaros. This year Miklós Spányi, a virtuoso of the organ and early keyboard instruments with European fame and an outstanding figure of early music in Hungary joins her at one of the most beautiful venues of the festival. The co-production of the two artists will be a brilliant evening at the 8th Börzsöny Baroque Days.
Márta Ábrahám is one of the most outstanding violinists in the young generation of leading Hungarian artists. She obtained her diploma cum laude in 1996 as a student of Natasa Sós, Dénes Kovács and Ferenc Rados at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music Budapest. From the age of 17 she studied with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum of Salzburg and with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She was a first-prize winner in all Hungarian violin competitions between 1984 and 1994 besides winning a lot of international competitions, medals and special prizes. She has made numerous CDs and radio-recordings, which received enthusiastic praise. Four solo CDs of hers have been released, one by Philips Classics with London Philharmonic Orchestra, another in Hungary with Hungarian Radio Orchestra. He has given concerts in North and South America and been invited to several renown music festivals. She has worked as a guest leader in famous concert halls such as Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palais de Beaux-Art sin Brussels or the Philharmonie in Berlin. Márta Ábrahám was the first concertmaster of the Hungarian Radio Orchestra between 2005 an 2009; presently she is holding the post of concertmaster of the Sinfonietta Pannonica Chamber Orchestra, Budapest. Currently she is a violin professor at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest.
Miklós Spányi was born in Budapest in 1962. Besides graduating from the Academy of Music in Budapest he also did courses at the Royal Conservatory Antwerpen and the Academy of Music in Munich. His professors were Ferenc Gergely, János Sebestyén, Jos van Immerseel and Hedwig Bilgram. He performed in most European cities as a soloist of four instruments (harpsichord, organ, clavichord and fortepiano) and as basso continuo player with many different ensembles. He was first prize winner in international harpsichord competitions in Nantes in 1984 and in Paris in 1987. He has made many CDs with different recording companies. He was a founder of Concerto Armonico in 1983 and is still one of the artistic directors of the orchestra. With Concerto Armonico he also took part in a lot of important festivals throughout Europe and made CD recordings. They started recording the keyboard concertos composed by C. Ph. E. Bach in 1994 with the Swedish BIS company. Two of Miklós Spányi’s main research fields are the works of C. Ph. E. Bach and the history of early temperament systems. Currently he is teaching the organ and early keyboard instruments in the conservatory in Oulu in Finland.
