More information can be found at this link! These are excellent courses taught by excellent musician-educators. If you’re a musician/music educator/private music teacher and looking for an excuse to visit exotic places in Europe, Hungary would be an excellent choice. Please attend these if you can!
I wrote both entries for “To-Do List for moving abroad to Kecskemét, Hungary for First-Time Parents” in September last year. This way overdue blog still seems relevant and Part 2 concludes this segment. Hope this helps! Accommodation If you’re travelling with wife and kids in tow, it might be better if you rent a house or apartment in town instead of trying for the institute’s hostels. This not only affords you and your significant other privacy (common baths in the basement of the institute with separation between the sexes of course) but also the necessary space when needing to discipline naughty, crying children. If you’re worried about getting lost, DON’T! Kecskemét is a very easy town to navigate compared with Beijing or New York. It would be wise to write in to the institute’s administrator Dr Laura Kéri (affectionately known as Zita) early, state clearly your needs and allow her at least a month or more to ask around and find suitable accommodations based on your requests. A lot of work is being covered at …
Studying at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music is a beautiful dream come true. It can also potentially be a logistical and emotional nightmare for first-time parents like Annica and I who are chugging along our 14-month baby Athena along for the ride. Here are some quick ideas to help future students at the Institute who are coming with families feel more at ease. DISCLAIMER: Information in this blogpost are merely personal experiences and suggestions – governmental procedures & requirements can vary from place to place. ADMINISTRATION AT HOME RESIDENCE PERMITS The most painful process of all. Please do check the requirements of applying for residence permit for ‘studies’ (for yourself) and ‘family reunification’ (for accompanying families) with the Hungarian Consulate in or near your country. Note that the consulates may not necessarily operate by the standard office hours in your country and may have a very specific opening times for the public. Some generic advice: Email and CALL if you don’t receive a reply within corporation standards of 72hrs. Calling will save you …
Decided to post this in response to some queries on what studying at the Kodaly Institute is like. Disclaimer: Do note that the following information is based purely personal perspectives of masters studies at the Kodaly Institute for the academic year of 2011-2012 and should not be taken as official information. Do note also that the Kodaly Institute is always reviewing and renewing itself and modifications are made based on the recommendations of previous batches of students, so course structure or programmes may see modifications from year to year. It would be best to check with official institute administrators/lecturers or with recent graduates or alumni for the latest information. What is the music culture like in the institute and in Hungary? There are guest performers at the institute, performances by lecturers and/or their choirs in Kecskemet, and sometimes, buses are arranged for performances in Budapest. Performances are generally interesting and of good quality. Big names perform at MUPA every so often as well (Singapore’s Esplanade equivalent). Students who are looking for a platform to perform …
Albert Tay 