The Hungarian Institute and the Embassy of Hungary in Zagreb, supported by the Committee for the Memorial Year of Zrinski and the State Secretariat for Cultural and Science Diplomacy of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, were pleased to carry on its program series in the memorial year of Zrinski, by inviting the Sebő Ensemble to Croatia.
On the 20th of May, the ensemble held a convivial concert at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, hosted by the President of the Academy Zvonko Kusić and Hungarian Ambassador József Magyar. President of the Committee for Education, Science and Culture of the Croatian Parliament Gordana Rusak, prominent members of the Academy, distinguished representatives of Croatian science circles, members of the Committee for the Memorial Year of Zrinski, Assistant to the Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andreja Metelko-Zgombić and honorable members of the diplomatic corps attended the event.
On the 21st of May, the Ensemble Sebő held a concert at the birthplace of the Szigetvár hero, Zrin, as part of the city festival ZrinFest. Representatives of the municipal government, President of the General Council of Sisak County Ivanka Roksandić and Bishop of Sisak, Vlado Košić attended the concert. Croatian state television covered the event in its prime-time shows.
On the 22nd of May, the Ensemble Sebő also played in the Croatian National Theatre of the baroque city Varaždin, close to the Čakovec estate of the Zrinskis’.The event was held in partnership with the city of Varaždin and the concert board of the Varaždin Baroque Evenings. Preceded by a remarkable operetta gala “Duchess of Czardas” in January, the Sebő concert was already our second Hungarian music performance in Varaždin, both events were to serve as a prelude for Hungary’s partnership program during the Varaždin Baroque Evenings of 2017.
Our Zrinski program-series was also enriched by an exhibition of Frigyes Kőnig’s reconstruction drawings of fortresses as well by a concert of Ensemble Musica Profana in Čakovec. We were proud to note that the Zrinski memorial year, along with the cultural programs of the Embassy continued to draw wide media and public attention and provided further grounds for establishing strong Hungaro-Croatian social and intellectual connections.
