Leading Hungarian choral director Dr Katalin Kiss visits Dublin in November under the aegis of the Kodály Society of Ireland.

She will conduct the Canzona Chamber Choir (director Blánaid Murphy) and the Cathedral Players in a concert in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on Sunday, 7 November.

The all-Hungarian programme includes Kodály’s Psalm 114, Liszt’s Missa Choralis, the Irish premiere of Via Crucis by János Vajda and György Orbán’s Missa Quinta, commissioned by Dr Kiss.

Katalin Kiss is an internationally-renowned choral director. Her choir Ars Nova, founded in 1990, has won many choral competitions, most recently in Helsingbor, Sweden in 2004. She is professor at the Zoltán Kodály Institute in Kecskemét and has spent several years lecturing at the Kodály Centre of America. She is director of the Ars Nova Editio which is one of the leading commissioning bodies and publishers of contemporary Hungarian choral music. In 1996 she founded the World Choir of Hungarians which involves singers from the Hungarian community living throughout the world.

The Irish music community has always had a very strong link with the Hungarian system of music education developed by Kodály. The Kodály Society of Ireland is one of the most active music societies in the country and has made a significant difference to the standard of teachers and music education.

Dr Kiss will be in Dublin from 31 October until 8 November. During this time she will be rehearsing Canzona Chamber Choir, the Cathedral Players and will be giving workshops for a number of music groups.

Further information: Bernadette Quinn, Kodály Society of Ireland.