European Early Music Day - BACH 340.1. Sonatas

21 March is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach and also the European Early Music Day, which was joined a few years ago the Miercurea Ciuc Early Music Festival. In 2013, the European Early Music Network REMA (Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne) declared 21 March, the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach and the beginning of the astronomical spring, as the European Early Music Day. The initiators aim to raise awareness of the cultural heritage and diversity of European early music through concerts, conferences and musical events organised across Europe.

From March to June, the Cultural Center of Harghita County will present a real musical treat: a series of four concerts featuring Bach's sonatas.

This year marks the 340th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert, entitled Bach 340.1, will take place on Monday 24 March at 19:00 in the Roman Catholic Church Holy Cross Miercurea Ciuc. 

 Program: Sonatas for violin and harpischord:
Sonata in b minor, BWV 1014
Sonata in A major, BWV 1015
Sonata in E major, BWV 1016

Muzicians:

Harpischord: Zsuzsa Csengeri Kostyák 
Violin: Előd Gábor 

Admission to the concert is free.

Zsuzsa Csengeri Kostyák graduated from the Sigismund Toduță High School of Music in Cluj-Napoca in 2004; she continued her organ studies at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Ursula Philippi's class and studied harpsichord with Erich Türk. She was graduated in 2008. She obtained her MA in organ at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland) in 2010 under the mentorship of Lorenzo Ghielmi. During her years in Switzerland she was the organist of the Christkatolische Kirche of Möhlin. She has held several solo concerts in Cluj-Napoca and throughout Transylvania, and has also performed in Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. She is a regular participant at the Early Music Summer University in Miercurea Ciuc, as a harpsichord accompanist. Between 2011 and 2014, she was the organist of the Cluj Napoca–Tăietura Turcului Reformed Parish in Cluj-Napoca. She is a member of the Saint Cecilia chamber orchestra of Cluj-Napoca as organist and harpsichordist. As of 2016, she has been teaching organ and piano at the Sigismund Toduță High School of Music in Cluj-Napoca.

Előd Gábor completed his secondary education in his hometown, Miercurea Ciuc and graduated in violin performance at Transilvania University of Brașov. During and after his university years he attended various master classes under the guidance of instructors such as Melinda Béres, Katalin Hanke, Leona Varvarichi, Ulrike Titze, Benoit Douchy, Marcel Ponseele, Barnabás Kelemen and Răzvan Popovici, among others. In chamber music and orchestral concerts, he has played with artists such as Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas, Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, Jan-Erik Gustafsson, Jonian Ilias Kadesha, Maxim Rysanov, Mónika Tóth, Steffen Schlandt, Rebekka Hartmann, etc. He is currently a violinist of the Brasov Opera House Orchestra, member of the Concerto Spiralis early music ensemble, violist of the Kronstadt Quartet and guest concertmaster of the Georgius Chamber Orchestra in Sfântu Gheorghe.

Organizers: Cultural Center of Harghita County, Harghita County Council

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