On June 7, 2025, the Night of the Organs will return, celebrating the "Queen of Instruments" with international and Hungarian stars. This event has grown in popularity in Hungary and worldwide, with organisers from over 20 countries joining this year. The programs will take place in exciting venues, including churches, concert halls, and even outdoor locations.
Free entrance upon reservation: https://forms.gle/4GnAoxDefae1725f7
In Belgium, we are preparing a double concert!
- Zsombor Tóth-Vajna will give a concert in the Basilica of Our Lady of Tongeren (Stadhuisplein 10, 3700 Tongeren-Borgloon) on 07 June 2025 at 4PM
- László Attila Almásy will play at the organ of the Saint Remy Church in Huy (Rue des Foulons, 1 à 4500 HUY) on 07 June 2025 at 7PM
A Real Cultural Time Travel – Join Us!
In addition to the concerts we propose also a Doctoral Symposium at 13.30 in Stadhuis Tongeren, Vanbergenzaal
KEYNOTES - MEET THE JURY:
- Luc Ponet, KULeuven/LUCA – Leuven
Zeventiende-eeuwse organistenpraktijk ‘down to earth’ (NL) - Barbara Haggh-Huglo, University of Maryland – USA
Guillaume Du Fay and the Organ (EN) - Zsombor Toth-Vajna, Royal College of Music – Londen
Performance practice of restoration period keyboard music (EN) - Bart Naessens, VUB/Koninklijk Conservatorium – Brussel
Claviorganum, a curiosity? (NL)
Admission: free
Register (keynotes): tickets@baroqueandmore.be
A specialist in early keyboard instruments and a conductor, Zsombor Tóth-Vajna is one of the outstanding figures of this generation of young Hungarian musicians. At the Liszt Academy in Budapest, he graduated with honours in harpsichord and organ as a pupil of Miklós Spányi and Borbála Dobozy, then completed a Master’s degree in the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he graduated in organ, harpsichord, fortepiano, and clavichord under Menno van Delft, Richard Egarr, and Jacques van Oortmerssen. He studied conducting with Richard Egarr and Ton Koopman. In addition, he completed studies at the General Medicine programme at the Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University in Budapest. He is a frequent guest at concert venues in Hungary and abroad, from the Thomaskirche in Leipzig to Handel House in London, and he has appeared as keyboard soloist and conductor not only in many countries in Europe, but also in the United States. In 2024 he was the first Hungarian in the history of London’s Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral who gave solo recitals on the historic organs of these iconic venues. He has made recordings for Hungarian Radio and Hungarian Television, including some with András Batta, to popularize early keyboard music. He is the conductor and artistic director of the Harmonia Caelestis Baroque Orchestra, founded in 2015, and his passion for keyboard music for four-hands finds expression in the Piano e Forte Duo, with his twin Gergely. He further perfected his keyboard skills at masterclasses with Pierre Hantai, Skip Sempé, Ton Koopman, Masaaki Suzuki, Malcolm Bilson, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Christine Schornsheim, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Jon Laukvik, Andreas Staier, and Hans Fagius. As a teacher, he has given masterclasses in Hungary and abroad and has been a member of the juries at international competitions. In 2020 he gained a scholarship for a doctorate at the Royal College of Music in London. His field of research is performance practice in seventeenth-century English keyboard music, especially the organ works of John Blow and Henry Purcell. To date, he has released 12 solo CDs. Zsombor Tóth-Vajna was awarded Semmelweis University’s most prestigious Kerpel Prize in 2013 and was elected among the 50 most talented young Hungarians by the magazine La Femme in 2015. Zsombor also received the grant for the talented youth in Hungary (2015, 2017, 2018). In 2019 he received the prestigious Hungarian Bach Prize, in 2024 the Honorary Medal of Budavár, and the President of Hungary awarded him the Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit. In 2025 he was awarded Hungary’s highest decoration for music, the Liszt Ferenc Prize.
Hungarian organist László Attila Almásy was born in Budapest in 1962. His late father, László, was a pianist, composer and teacher, and his mother, Lily, is a retired health professional. His first piano teacher was Mrs. Tibor Gáspár, and he started learning the organ with Mr. József Kárpáti and Mr. István Baróti. In 1980, as a pupil of Mrs. Edit Hambalkó at the Béla Bartók Music School in Budapest, he won first prize at the Hungarian National Music Schools Piano Competition.
Later, at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest he studied piano with Mr. István Lantos and Mrs. Edit Hambalkó, graduating in 1986, and organ with Mr. Gábor Lehotka, qualifying the following year. He won second prize in the 1988 Budapest International Liszt Organ Competition, and was a finalist in the Bruckner International Organ Competition in Linz, Austria in 1990. His career as an organ recitalist has taken him to all five corners of the globe: he has performed to acclaim in no fewer than thirty countries. He has played the organ in Budapest, Prague, Salzburg, Frankfurt, Rome, The Vatican, Barcelona, The Hague, London, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tomsk (former Soviet Union), Singapore, Sydney, Guanajuato (Mexico), Montevideo, Buenos Aires, as well as Whangarei, Auckland, Onehunga, Timaru, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin in New Zealand, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth in South-Africa; he has also performed as a pianist in Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands and the former Soviet Union.
With the Hungarian Chorale Quintet, in which he was the organist, he appeared in Singapore, Finland, Estonia and Spain. He has worked with such world class conductors as Mr. Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Mr.Antal Doráti. He was awarded an Artisjus Prize in 2007. He regularly plays for services at St. Anne's RC Church in the Upper Water Town District of Budapest and often in another Hungarian RC churches. From 1986 to 2011 he was accompanist and taught piano and organ at the Bartók Béla Music School, Budapest. Between 2013 and 2021 he taught piano at Weöres Sándor school in Gyömrő. Between 2020 and 2022 he taught piano and organ and was an accompanist in Vecsés. From 2023 he has been an accompanist at the Farkas Ferenc music school in the 1st district of Budapest.