Kaláka band
V. G. born in 1951, Budapest. B. R. born in 1951, Ózd. D. G. born in 1950, Budapest. Exported as musicians. Currently members of Kaláka band*. Current fourth member is Gábor Becze. *István Mikó co-founder.
Dear future engineers! Many of my ancestors were engineers. I was good at maths and physics in high school, so I was practically programmed to apply to the University of Technology, where I was admitted on the first attempt. I had a really good start at my studies, but in my second year I founded the Kaláka band, and from then on my grades kept getting worse, as making music took more and more of my time. Nevertheless – perhaps for the sake of my family – I graduated, albeit a year late, exactly fifty years ago. I will receive my gold diploma this year. I never had a job as an engineer. They say I’m a career changer, but I prefer to call myself a career finder. Was there any point in studying so hard and taking all those exams? Very much so! You have to go through this process to become an intellectual. You have to be able to study, to take exams, to pick out the important information from thousands of pages. I’m glad I was a student of the technical uni! – Dániel Gryllus Go, future architects, go! The years of study and preparation should be a time of openness, attention and diligence. Because to concentrate and see only the goal in front of us, to exclude, to separate the irrelevant from the relevant, that is also something one must learn. And then one has to be able to enhance, deepen and develop these skills – constantly. Your first-year exams, the attractive and accurate drafts and papers you hand in will already reveal whether or not you are fit for this career. Those who receive, evaluate, judge and mark these will already see the creative professional in you if you have put in the necessary effort. Have a role model! Work with a light hand, without frills, playfully and with subtle nuances. Keep your sketchbook close at hand. Don’t take photos! Boo! Sketch, catch a good subject from a train window, from a plane window, on a mountain hike. Experiment. One design is no design! Your task is to create value, always keep in mind the purpose, the future role, the utility and aesthetic value of the work you are creating. Create the essence starting out from the essence. Work is only good when it can’t get any better! That is my message. – Balázs Radványi
Manifesto ↓
Of course, success as an engineer would have been nice, too, and there are very nice examples of that in the family, but perhaps this slightly freer way of life, all the improvisation and transformation of emotions into songs, is better suited to my character.
Career path ↓
The Kaláka band was founded in 1969. The original meaning of the Hungarian word “kaláka” goes back to the Transylvanian folk custom, when houses in villages were built in a form of collective work. Three of the founders – Dániel Gryllus, Vilmos Gryllus and Balázs Radványi – studied architecture and land surveying at the Budapest University of Technology. In the early years, their focus gradually shifted from academic studies to music. As undergraduates, the three musicians took part in a project – invited by architect professor Emmerich Simoncsics of the Vienna University of Technology – where students from different disciplines of art worked together. “In collaboration with dancers and pantomime artists, we tried to translate the spatial experience of facades into music. It was a very exciting experiment, but just as important was the fact that it came with a contract that allowed us to travel abroad several times a year.” The project of the Kaláka band was titled 1974, and it comprised the musical interpretation of a building. The concept of ‘graphic scores’ allows architecture to be transformed into music, as illustrated by the example they created for architect Hara Hiroshi’s Yamato International Building. The window openings mark the rhythm, while the melody is defined by the contours. Kaláka has released close to fifty albums and more than thirteen hundred songs, and has played in several countries on international tours. They sing poetry, and as a result, their music is diverse and spans multiple styles. Their distinct sound is created by the four singing voices combined with classical and folk instruments. In addition to classical instruments, they often use extraordinary instruments and utensils that they have collected during their tours over the past fifty-five years. Their musical palette is colourful: poem adaptations, folk music, children’s songs, film music, collaborations with other performers and impromptu jam sessions all add to the experience and value. At Kaláka concerts, children are not only listeners but also active participants. As the musicians attended the famous Lorántffy Primary School of Music, where they were taught according to the principles of Zoltán Kodály, they are the living proof of the concept and conscious users of this kind of musical education. They have been awarded the Kossuth Prize twice, as well as the Prima Primissima Award, among countless other prestigious accolades. The band, active with great success for fifty-six years now, has had more than ten thousand concerts, touring abroad and domestically year by year, and has been the organiser and host of the Kaláka Festival for forty-six years, which they have been improving and renewing year after year.
Kaláka band
V. G. born in 1951, Budapest. B. R. born in 1951, Ózd. D. G. born in 1950, Budapest. Exported as musicians. Currently members of Kaláka band*. Current fourth member is Gábor Becze. *István Mikó co-founder.
Dear future engineers! Many of my ancestors were engineers. I was good at maths and physics in high school, so I was practically programmed to apply to the University of Technology, where I was admitted on the first attempt. I had a really good start at my studies, but in my second year I founded the Kaláka band, and from then on my grades kept getting worse, as making music took more and more of my time. Nevertheless – perhaps for the sake of my family – I graduated, albeit a year late, exactly fifty years ago. I will receive my gold diploma this year. I never had a job as an engineer. They say I’m a career changer, but I prefer to call myself a career finder. Was there any point in studying so hard and taking all those exams? Very much so! You have to go through this process to become an intellectual. You have to be able to study, to take exams, to pick out the important information from thousands of pages. I’m glad I was a student of the technical uni! – Dániel Gryllus Go, future architects, go! The years of study and preparation should be a time of openness, attention and diligence. Because to concentrate and see only the goal in front of us, to exclude, to separate the irrelevant from the relevant, that is also something one must learn. And then one has to be able to enhance, deepen and develop these skills – constantly. Your first-year exams, the attractive and accurate drafts and papers you hand in will already reveal whether or not you are fit for this career. Those who receive, evaluate, judge and mark these will already see the creative professional in you if you have put in the necessary effort. Have a role model! Work with a light hand, without frills, playfully and with subtle nuances. Keep your sketchbook close at hand. Don’t take photos! Boo! Sketch, catch a good subject from a train window, from a plane window, on a mountain hike. Experiment. One design is no design! Your task is to create value, always keep in mind the purpose, the future role, the utility and aesthetic value of the work you are creating. Create the essence starting out from the essence. Work is only good when it can’t get any better! That is my message. – Balázs Radványi
Manifesto ↓
Of course, success as an engineer would have been nice, too, and there are very nice examples of that in the family, but perhaps this slightly freer way of life, all the improvisation and transformation of emotions into songs, is better suited to my character.
Career path ↓
The Kaláka band was founded in 1969. The original meaning of the Hungarian word “kaláka” goes back to the Transylvanian folk custom, when houses in villages were built in a form of collective work. Three of the founders – Dániel Gryllus, Vilmos Gryllus and Balázs Radványi – studied architecture and land surveying at the Budapest University of Technology. In the early years, their focus gradually shifted from academic studies to music. As undergraduates, the three musicians took part in a project – invited by architect professor Emmerich Simoncsics of the Vienna University of Technology – where students from different disciplines of art worked together. “In collaboration with dancers and pantomime artists, we tried to translate the spatial experience of facades into music. It was a very exciting experiment, but just as important was the fact that it came with a contract that allowed us to travel abroad several times a year.” The project of the Kaláka band was titled 1974, and it comprised the musical interpretation of a building. The concept of ‘graphic scores’ allows architecture to be transformed into music, as illustrated by the example they created for architect Hara Hiroshi’s Yamato International Building. The window openings mark the rhythm, while the melody is defined by the contours. Kaláka has released close to fifty albums and more than thirteen hundred songs, and has played in several countries on international tours. They sing poetry, and as a result, their music is diverse and spans multiple styles. Their distinct sound is created by the four singing voices combined with classical and folk instruments. In addition to classical instruments, they often use extraordinary instruments and utensils that they have collected during their tours over the past fifty-five years. Their musical palette is colourful: poem adaptations, folk music, children’s songs, film music, collaborations with other performers and impromptu jam sessions all add to the experience and value. At Kaláka concerts, children are not only listeners but also active participants. As the musicians attended the famous Lorántffy Primary School of Music, where they were taught according to the principles of Zoltán Kodály, they are the living proof of the concept and conscious users of this kind of musical education. They have been awarded the Kossuth Prize twice, as well as the Prima Primissima Award, among countless other prestigious accolades. The band, active with great success for fifty-six years now, has had more than ten thousand concerts, touring abroad and domestically year by year, and has been the organiser and host of the Kaláka Festival for forty-six years, which they have been improving and renewing year after year.
Kaláka band
V. G. born in 1951, Budapest. B. R. born in 1951, Ózd. D. G. born in 1950, Budapest. Exported as musicians. Currently members of Kaláka band*. Current fourth member is Gábor Becze. *István Mikó co-founder.
Dear future engineers! Many of my ancestors were engineers. I was good at maths and physics in high school, so I was practically programmed to apply to the University of Technology, where I was admitted on the first attempt. I had a really good start at my studies, but in my second year I founded the Kaláka band, and from then on my grades kept getting worse, as making music took more and more of my time. Nevertheless – perhaps for the sake of my family – I graduated, albeit a year late, exactly fifty years ago. I will receive my gold diploma this year. I never had a job as an engineer. They say I’m a career changer, but I prefer to call myself a career finder. Was there any point in studying so hard and taking all those exams? Very much so! You have to go through this process to become an intellectual. You have to be able to study, to take exams, to pick out the important information from thousands of pages. I’m glad I was a student of the technical uni! – Dániel Gryllus Go, future architects, go! The years of study and preparation should be a time of openness, attention and diligence. Because to concentrate and see only the goal in front of us, to exclude, to separate the irrelevant from the relevant, that is also something one must learn. And then one has to be able to enhance, deepen and develop these skills – constantly. Your first-year exams, the attractive and accurate drafts and papers you hand in will already reveal whether or not you are fit for this career. Those who receive, evaluate, judge and mark these will already see the creative professional in you if you have put in the necessary effort. Have a role model! Work with a light hand, without frills, playfully and with subtle nuances. Keep your sketchbook close at hand. Don’t take photos! Boo! Sketch, catch a good subject from a train window, from a plane window, on a mountain hike. Experiment. One design is no design! Your task is to create value, always keep in mind the purpose, the future role, the utility and aesthetic value of the work you are creating. Create the essence starting out from the essence. Work is only good when it can’t get any better! That is my message. – Balázs Radványi
Manifesto ↓
Of course, success as an engineer would have been nice, too, and there are very nice examples of that in the family, but perhaps this slightly freer way of life, all the improvisation and transformation of emotions into songs, is better suited to my character.
Career path ↓
The Kaláka band was founded in 1969. The original meaning of the Hungarian word “kaláka” goes back to the Transylvanian folk custom, when houses in villages were built in a form of collective work. Three of the founders – Dániel Gryllus, Vilmos Gryllus and Balázs Radványi – studied architecture and land surveying at the Budapest University of Technology. In the early years, their focus gradually shifted from academic studies to music. As undergraduates, the three musicians took part in a project – invited by architect professor Emmerich Simoncsics of the Vienna University of Technology – where students from different disciplines of art worked together. “In collaboration with dancers and pantomime artists, we tried to translate the spatial experience of facades into music. It was a very exciting experiment, but just as important was the fact that it came with a contract that allowed us to travel abroad several times a year.” The project of the Kaláka band was titled 1974, and it comprised the musical interpretation of a building. The concept of ‘graphic scores’ allows architecture to be transformed into music, as illustrated by the example they created for architect Hara Hiroshi’s Yamato International Building. The window openings mark the rhythm, while the melody is defined by the contours. Kaláka has released close to fifty albums and more than thirteen hundred songs, and has played in several countries on international tours. They sing poetry, and as a result, their music is diverse and spans multiple styles. Their distinct sound is created by the four singing voices combined with classical and folk instruments. In addition to classical instruments, they often use extraordinary instruments and utensils that they have collected during their tours over the past fifty-five years. Their musical palette is colourful: poem adaptations, folk music, children’s songs, film music, collaborations with other performers and impromptu jam sessions all add to the experience and value. At Kaláka concerts, children are not only listeners but also active participants. As the musicians attended the famous Lorántffy Primary School of Music, where they were taught according to the principles of Zoltán Kodály, they are the living proof of the concept and conscious users of this kind of musical education. They have been awarded the Kossuth Prize twice, as well as the Prima Primissima Award, among countless other prestigious accolades. The band, active with great success for fifty-six years now, has had more than ten thousand concerts, touring abroad and domestically year by year, and has been the organiser and host of the Kaláka Festival for forty-six years, which they have been improving and renewing year after year.
Kaláka band
V. G. born in 1951, Budapest. B. R. born in 1951, Ózd. D. G. born in 1950, Budapest. Exported as musicians. Currently members of Kaláka band*. Current fourth member is Gábor Becze. *István Mikó co-founder.
Dear future engineers! Many of my ancestors were engineers. I was good at maths and physics in high school, so I was practically programmed to apply to the University of Technology, where I was admitted on the first attempt. I had a really good start at my studies, but in my second year I founded the Kaláka band, and from then on my grades kept getting worse, as making music took more and more of my time. Nevertheless – perhaps for the sake of my family – I graduated, albeit a year late, exactly fifty years ago. I will receive my gold diploma this year. I never had a job as an engineer. They say I’m a career changer, but I prefer to call myself a career finder. Was there any point in studying so hard and taking all those exams? Very much so! You have to go through this process to become an intellectual. You have to be able to study, to take exams, to pick out the important information from thousands of pages. I’m glad I was a student of the technical uni! – Dániel Gryllus Go, future architects, go! The years of study and preparation should be a time of openness, attention and diligence. Because to concentrate and see only the goal in front of us, to exclude, to separate the irrelevant from the relevant, that is also something one must learn. And then one has to be able to enhance, deepen and develop these skills – constantly. Your first-year exams, the attractive and accurate drafts and papers you hand in will already reveal whether or not you are fit for this career. Those who receive, evaluate, judge and mark these will already see the creative professional in you if you have put in the necessary effort. Have a role model! Work with a light hand, without frills, playfully and with subtle nuances. Keep your sketchbook close at hand. Don’t take photos! Boo! Sketch, catch a good subject from a train window, from a plane window, on a mountain hike. Experiment. One design is no design! Your task is to create value, always keep in mind the purpose, the future role, the utility and aesthetic value of the work you are creating. Create the essence starting out from the essence. Work is only good when it can’t get any better! That is my message. – Balázs Radványi
Manifesto ↓
Of course, success as an engineer would have been nice, too, and there are very nice examples of that in the family, but perhaps this slightly freer way of life, all the improvisation and transformation of emotions into songs, is better suited to my character.
Career path ↓
The Kaláka band was founded in 1969. The original meaning of the Hungarian word “kaláka” goes back to the Transylvanian folk custom, when houses in villages were built in a form of collective work. Three of the founders – Dániel Gryllus, Vilmos Gryllus and Balázs Radványi – studied architecture and land surveying at the Budapest University of Technology. In the early years, their focus gradually shifted from academic studies to music. As undergraduates, the three musicians took part in a project – invited by architect professor Emmerich Simoncsics of the Vienna University of Technology – where students from different disciplines of art worked together. “In collaboration with dancers and pantomime artists, we tried to translate the spatial experience of facades into music. It was a very exciting experiment, but just as important was the fact that it came with a contract that allowed us to travel abroad several times a year.” The project of the Kaláka band was titled 1974, and it comprised the musical interpretation of a building. The concept of ‘graphic scores’ allows architecture to be transformed into music, as illustrated by the example they created for architect Hara Hiroshi’s Yamato International Building. The window openings mark the rhythm, while the melody is defined by the contours. Kaláka has released close to fifty albums and more than thirteen hundred songs, and has played in several countries on international tours. They sing poetry, and as a result, their music is diverse and spans multiple styles. Their distinct sound is created by the four singing voices combined with classical and folk instruments. In addition to classical instruments, they often use extraordinary instruments and utensils that they have collected during their tours over the past fifty-five years. Their musical palette is colourful: poem adaptations, folk music, children’s songs, film music, collaborations with other performers and impromptu jam sessions all add to the experience and value. At Kaláka concerts, children are not only listeners but also active participants. As the musicians attended the famous Lorántffy Primary School of Music, where they were taught according to the principles of Zoltán Kodály, they are the living proof of the concept and conscious users of this kind of musical education. They have been awarded the Kossuth Prize twice, as well as the Prima Primissima Award, among countless other prestigious accolades. The band, active with great success for fifty-six years now, has had more than ten thousand concerts, touring abroad and domestically year by year, and has been the organiser and host of the Kaláka Festival for forty-six years, which they have been improving and renewing year after year.
Kaláka band
V. G. born in 1951, Budapest. B. R. born in 1951, Ózd. D. G. born in 1950, Budapest. Exported as musicians. Currently members of Kaláka band*. Current fourth member is Gábor Becze. *István Mikó co-founder.
Dear future engineers! Many of my ancestors were engineers. I was good at maths and physics in high school, so I was practically programmed to apply to the University of Technology, where I was admitted on the first attempt. I had a really good start at my studies, but in my second year I founded the Kaláka band, and from then on my grades kept getting worse, as making music took more and more of my time. Nevertheless – perhaps for the sake of my family – I graduated, albeit a year late, exactly fifty years ago. I will receive my gold diploma this year. I never had a job as an engineer. They say I’m a career changer, but I prefer to call myself a career finder. Was there any point in studying so hard and taking all those exams? Very much so! You have to go through this process to become an intellectual. You have to be able to study, to take exams, to pick out the important information from thousands of pages. I’m glad I was a student of the technical uni! – Dániel Gryllus Go, future architects, go! The years of study and preparation should be a time of openness, attention and diligence. Because to concentrate and see only the goal in front of us, to exclude, to separate the irrelevant from the relevant, that is also something one must learn. And then one has to be able to enhance, deepen and develop these skills – constantly. Your first-year exams, the attractive and accurate drafts and papers you hand in will already reveal whether or not you are fit for this career. Those who receive, evaluate, judge and mark these will already see the creative professional in you if you have put in the necessary effort. Have a role model! Work with a light hand, without frills, playfully and with subtle nuances. Keep your sketchbook close at hand. Don’t take photos! Boo! Sketch, catch a good subject from a train window, from a plane window, on a mountain hike. Experiment. One design is no design! Your task is to create value, always keep in mind the purpose, the future role, the utility and aesthetic value of the work you are creating. Create the essence starting out from the essence. Work is only good when it can’t get any better! That is my message. – Balázs Radványi
Manifesto ↓
Of course, success as an engineer would have been nice, too, and there are very nice examples of that in the family, but perhaps this slightly freer way of life, all the improvisation and transformation of emotions into songs, is better suited to my character.
Career path ↓
The Kaláka band was founded in 1969. The original meaning of the Hungarian word “kaláka” goes back to the Transylvanian folk custom, when houses in villages were built in a form of collective work. Three of the founders – Dániel Gryllus, Vilmos Gryllus and Balázs Radványi – studied architecture and land surveying at the Budapest University of Technology. In the early years, their focus gradually shifted from academic studies to music. As undergraduates, the three musicians took part in a project – invited by architect professor Emmerich Simoncsics of the Vienna University of Technology – where students from different disciplines of art worked together. “In collaboration with dancers and pantomime artists, we tried to translate the spatial experience of facades into music. It was a very exciting experiment, but just as important was the fact that it came with a contract that allowed us to travel abroad several times a year.” The project of the Kaláka band was titled 1974, and it comprised the musical interpretation of a building. The concept of ‘graphic scores’ allows architecture to be transformed into music, as illustrated by the example they created for architect Hara Hiroshi’s Yamato International Building. The window openings mark the rhythm, while the melody is defined by the contours. Kaláka has released close to fifty albums and more than thirteen hundred songs, and has played in several countries on international tours. They sing poetry, and as a result, their music is diverse and spans multiple styles. Their distinct sound is created by the four singing voices combined with classical and folk instruments. In addition to classical instruments, they often use extraordinary instruments and utensils that they have collected during their tours over the past fifty-five years. Their musical palette is colourful: poem adaptations, folk music, children’s songs, film music, collaborations with other performers and impromptu jam sessions all add to the experience and value. At Kaláka concerts, children are not only listeners but also active participants. As the musicians attended the famous Lorántffy Primary School of Music, where they were taught according to the principles of Zoltán Kodály, they are the living proof of the concept and conscious users of this kind of musical education. They have been awarded the Kossuth Prize twice, as well as the Prima Primissima Award, among countless other prestigious accolades. The band, active with great success for fifty-six years now, has had more than ten thousand concerts, touring abroad and domestically year by year, and has been the organiser and host of the Kaláka Festival for forty-six years, which they have been improving and renewing year after year.