US Embassy Hosts Jazz Concert To Mark 1956 Anniversary
- 31 Oct 2016 8:00 AM
The US embassy in Budapest hosted a jazz concert organised in cooperation with internet portal JazzMa on Thursday evening to mark the anniversary of Hungary’s failed anti- Soviet uprising in 1956. The concert paid tribute to Hungarian jazz musicians Gábor Szabó, Attila Garai, Iván Zágon, Sándor Dobsa and others, who had made an unauthorised recording in the summer of 1956 with help of US consul-general at the time Ernest Nagy.
The recording was broadcast by Voice of America on November 23 that year.
Speaking to MTI, US ambassador Colleen Bell referred to 1956 as a milestone in Hungarian history when some took weapons to fight oppression, while others expressed their discontent through music.
She called it an honour that jazz, rooted in the ideals of freedom and independence, could become a medium of democratic self-expression in Hungary at that time.
The concert was part of a series of events the embassy has organised to commemorate Hungary’s revolution.
Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter
Photo: U.S. Embassy Budapest
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