The pianist Károly Binder has been one of the most respected representatives of the alternative, experimental wing of Hungarian jazz for more than 30 years. His piano playing and compositions defy categorization under a single style or genre. Since gaining his musician’s degree in 1979, this multi-faceted artist has made unrelenting and consistent progress along an individual musical path that has no precedents in Hungary. The influence of Béla Bartók’s grandiose work can clearly be traced in his development as a composer, as can the folklore of the Carpathian Basin and the melodic influence of the Hungarians’ ancestral land in the region of the Volga and Kama rivers, but so too can the American school of repetitive, minimalist music hallmarked by the composer Steve Reich. Binder is an idiosyncratic artist who plays by his own rules, preferring to express his ideas most fully in solo piano performance. He also stretches the boundaries as a solo performer in terms of the sounds at his disposal, employing elements of prepared piano and various percussive effects in his musical armoury. In the first half of the evening’s concert, Binder will present his best pupils and spiritual heirs Máté Lachegyi, Máté Pozsár and Gábor Varga, playing duets with each. After this, he will perform his own compositions accompanied by saxophonist and long-time collaborator Mihály Borbély. Presented by the Palace of Arts

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