Let's Pay It Forward! Make a stranger happy today!

I would like to start a little Pay It Forward movement here in my circle of influence.

A few weeks ago two men joined me at my table because the cafe was very busy and they did not get a table. We had a lovely chat during our meals, they were two fantastic people. When they left, they finalised my bill, too. I was truly touched. This give me an idea of re-starting the well-known movement, pay it forward.

Next time you see a person less fortunate, a disabled person, a mum or dad struggling with kids, a person in a bad mood, pay for their meal or pay for a cup of coffee! Whatever suits you! It feels great and it makes their day, too! A few times you do it and you see people's reactions, you become addicted to doing it! A small price to make your day and somebody else's!

Today, I had the chance to pay it forward. At my cafe there are quite a few disabled people in wheelchairs who are regular customer. There is an elderly man, who hardly can move any part of his body and his head is bent to the side too. I see him frequently drinking his juice, coffee or eating his meal or a piece of cake cut up to small pieces by staff. Today he was there at the same time with me and I thought. This is it! I am doing this today! I checked things with staff and asked them not to tell him who paid his bill.

Unfortunately, staff got too excited and touched that they told him. So when he rolled out in his wheelchair he said a thank you. I felt embarrassed, touched and happy. Mixed emotions. It felt good. Staff was buzzing, too. My waitress asked me what motivated me to be so nice. I explained to her.

I decided that I will do this, whenever I have the chance. Please, don't misunderstand me. I am not rich and I have no money to throw away. But a few dollars, a price of a coffee, goes a long way making people happy. Showing them a gesture. Showing that we care. That we noticed them. That they count. So please, pay it forward!

I encourage you to write a little story about your pay it forward gesture when you do it! Not to brag about it but to inspire others to do it and share their story. If everyone does it one a month, soon our surroundings will be full of great stories, positive feelings and energy!

Please be part of it, pay it forward!

With Bartok - it's personal

I would not be a Hungarian musician if I did not write a few lines on one of my favourite composer's birthday, who is also Hungarian and had a lot of connection with him through my music teachers and lecturers. However, the most connection I had with him as a composer and as a human being is through his music. But not just the very known music of his but those compositions he wrote for children, for children's voices. The pieces that are still not accessible to foreigners because they are so intimate, so human, so Hungarian and so private that most foreigners simply don't get it.

They are my treasures. They are the pieces I grew up singing in my school choir and performed abroad. They are the ones we sang in duets or trios with my friends and recorded for CD-s and performed at TV broadcasts. They are the ones I want my friends to play at my memorial after being cremated and my ashes scattered in the sea if and when I pass away.

This book of short choral pieces are incredibly beautiful and sometimes strange and ahead of its time type of compositions that are the real gift of Bartok Bela to the nation and to the world.

On these pictures you see my pages from Bartok score that is worn. This is not my first book I had. Many times we had to write out our parts by hand in those times. We had extra choir rehearsals at 7am in the morning. We had choir rehearsals during the day as part of the timetable a few times a week. We loved choir. Adored some of our conductors. Choral singing allowed us to travel the world from a very early age. In times when most Hungarians were not allowed or could not cross the boarders. We were like the singing birds flying everywhere.
On the right is the score of Ne hagy itt by Bartok - Don't leave me here by Bartok on this recording with the additional orchestra accompaniment.

As I looked for this Bartok score and I found it on the bookshelf together with Kodaly's choral compositions, I saw the old paper cover that was a Hungarian Christmas wrapping paper. Torn and scrambled. This book is from 1988. This was the book that I used to pass on the traditions to my own students, to my own fabulous children's choir. For them choir meant the same. Incredible musical experiences, travel and fun. We did it together. Incredible years, unforgettable memories.

Sadly, a thought comes into my mind as I am writing. How little attention we are paying to the Arts in general in our education. How little mention the Arts is getting in Australia by our politicians. How little of our resources is spent on arts. In the end, there is nothing else left to mention when everything else is gone. But the books, the paintings, the sculptures and music. They make us human. They are the ones that deserve preserving. So Arts is the one our children and students should be cultivating.

I look at the elderly, the retired. Once they finish working they reach out for creative activities to fulfil their old yearnings of writing, reading, dancing, yoga, painting, doing pottery, go back to sing in a choir, play in a band and orchestra. There is no life without the Arts. Until we breath we want to create.

Some people have more talent than others. Some, like Bartok, can give gifts to the world that have transformational power and the recipients carry all in their lives.

Happy birthday Bartok Bela! The world is a better place because of your music.




The photo was taken at the Acropolis of Athens, Greece in August 1989 during the 9th International Kodaly Symposium and the inauguration of the Kodaly Conservatory. Although I have never met Bartok himself, he died earlier than I was born, I was lucky enough to have met his son, Bela Bartok Jr. On this picture I am in very famous company, with Bela Bartok Jr in the middle and Professor Peter Erdei on the right.

The following picture is from Bartok's score of 27 choral compositions for equal voices. 27 diamonds.

Canon by Bartok