There was a real treat in store for the artists of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra (GYPO) as well as for all those who did come to our first concerts of the new year.

Accepting our invitation we had the great pleasure and honor to team up with the world-famous male vocal ensamble, the King’s Singers, to present for the first time in Hungary their latest album called „The Great American Songbook”. The six phenomanal singers from England first stepped on Richter Hall’s stage on January 17 to hold a short press conference and acquaint themselves with the venue. The initially formal atmosphere soon turned into a real friendly chat and these outstanding performers actually turned out to be six real cool guys from Great-Britain. They were nice and friendly, laid back, but extremely professional at the same time with a unique sense of humor to top it all. Prior to their first rehearsal with GYPO the singers had had lunch with conductor Márton Rácz that gave them a good opportunity to talk shop before their first evening session with the orchestra on Friday the 17th.
It was a bit of a challange for the members of GYPO to take a trip to the relatively unknown territory of American entertaining music of the 1900s, and learn to play the golden oldies mostly from the first half of the previous century. However, it was not much later when it became all too clear that this was going to be an unforgettable experience for all parties involved. There was special excitement in the air on premier day next day already! Everything seemed to have fallen into place just fine including the work of the technical crew as well. That level of excitement rose to its highest point when GYPO and the King’s Singers walked onstage to perform together. Hopefully it is not immodest to say that those who were there to hear the three shows difinitely did get their money’s worth! Members of the audience could all attest that our orchestra’s artists were great partners to these exceptional singers and the end result of this partnership was something to cherish. After the performance members of the ensamble said thanks and words of appreciation to GYPO for the work together.
On Sunday 18, the King’s Singers had their a capella performance in Sopron’s Evangelical Church as an event of the Ferenc Liszt season ticket series. This was followed the next day by another Richter Hall show as part of the Tibor Varga concert series. By this time our guests and GYPO musicians were good friends and nothing was in the way of real fun with these lovely songs together.
Good times were not over with that night though! On January 21, we had the pleasure to repeat the program for the third time. This time at the beautifully renovated Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. Knowing this was our last concert with the King’s Singers was a special incentive to do our absolute best to enchant the packed hall’s audience. The evening was a great success and a wonderful end to our collaboration with the King’s Singers. We can all but promise that this collaboration is to be continued if not sooner than in 2018 when we and the King’s Singers both will celebrate our 50th anniversary!