Results of Folk Music Research Were Presented at Prestigious Event in the U.S.

Miklós Both, director general of the House of Traditions, gave presentations on new directions in Hungarian folk music research in New York and New Orleans.

Miklós Both reported on Hungarian research methods and approaches that use the latest technologies in data analysis on Tuesday evening, at an educational lecture organized by the Liszt Institute in New York. The director general presented to American and Hungarian audiences the changes in thinking and approaches to folk music research that are related to difference in tools. He emphasized that the topic of folk music research is closer to the hearts of New York audiences because Béla Bartók spent the last period of his life there.

Before New York, Miklós Both had been in New Orleans, where he participated in and gave a presentation at the world’s largest professional folk music event, the Folk Alliance International Festival. He said that the results and new methods of Hungarian folk music research were presented for the first time at this event.

It was an important first appearance in terms of Hungarian folk music research,”

he emphasized, adding that part of the international professional community is familiar with the Hungarian dance house movement, while the work of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály is widely known, and this could be used as a basis when exploring the directions and tools of new Hungarian folk music research that began in the early 2000s.

The restaurant of the Szabadság Hotel in Debrecen. József Balogh and his folk band. Photo: Fortepan / Bauer Sándor

Also in New York, organized by the Liszt Institute in collaboration with Hungarian partners, the documentary film Országház (Hungarian Parliament) was screened a week earlier on the occasion of Hungarian Culture Day, which is also the first event in a series of Hungarian-American celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. The film, shot in 2023, which presents the Hungarian parliament building in detail, was screened at the Lincoln Center cinema in front of an American and Hungarian audience.

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