International String orchestra project in Singapore

The Director of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, Prof Bernard Lanskey welcomed the initiative of the Austrian ambassador in Singarpore with great joy, namely that on 150th anniversary of the birth of the Blue Danube Waltz, Asian students would perform pieces of the musical heritage of the Danube region alongside students from countries the river runs through (Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romania). The ambassadors of these countries all unanimously supported the idea. Finally, in November, 2017, the initiative was incorporated with the title "On the Beautiful Danube". An excellent alumnus of the Liszt Academy, an internationally acclaimed violinist, a department leading professor of the Geneva University of Music acted as artistic director and conductor, Gábor Takács-Nagy.  He had selected the most meritorious European participants for the strings project from the music academies of Hanover,  Graz, Budapest and Bucharest,  who felt honoured to join their peers in Singapore. Three of our own took part in the venture: the violinists Oszkár Varga, Éva Osztrosits from the Doctoral School and the double-bassist Benedek Devich from the Special School for Exceptional Young Talents. Following the intense one-week rehearsal period, the fully booked concert was aired live online from its venue, the concert hall of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, where the Singaporean audience could become more familiar with the music of Central Europe through the pieces of Bartók, Dvořák, Enescu and J. Strauss. Oszkár Varga served as concertmaster to the orchestra.