MAO Creative Crew

The Modern Art Orchestra is Hungary’s only full jazz orchestra with a contemporary jazz and classical repertoire. All year in 2023, they will visit the region's towns and villages, taking contemporary jazz to local audiences in schools and churches. It has always been an important mission for MAO to take quality contemporary jazz closer to ordinary people, to show up at as many venues as possible with current content and quality sound, and to emerge unexpectedly, surprise and reach new audiences. 

The MAO Creative Crew youth series introduces children and young adults to the basics of jazz in a series of unconventional music lessons with the Creative Crew, a five-piece formation of MAO musicians. The quintet, consisting of drums, bass, piano and two wind instruments, demonstrate the power of improvisation and creativity in a concert lasting just over an hour, during which children can reflect, offer ideas, and even participate in the process of composition. 

MAO Sacred Music takes fusion music to sacral spaces, with guest artists performing. Examples include Handel's Messiah or Purcell's Fairy Queen in a unique MAO version. 

The musical legacies of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály are not to be left out. In special co-productions with local folk-dance groups and choirs, the works of the two most influential composers in Hungarian music history are performed together.

‘The Peacock’s on the Wing’ (Felszállott a páva), is a tribute to Zoltán Kodály. The concert presents a cross-section of Kodály's complete oeuvre, from early impressionist works to his choral music based on folk songs. The original Kodály compositions will be performed by MAO and the Debrecen Kodály Choir, with local choirs and choruses also taking to the stage. 

Bartók - Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, -a work of transcription by Béla Bartók for a full orchestra, is brought to life by MAO's outstanding musicians, who bridge the melodies with improvisations.  Alongside guest soloists Miklós Lukács on dulcimer and Mihály Dresch on saxophone, local folk-dance ensembles are also part of the production.