Máté Hodossi became the Csokonai Theater Told a Toldit! winner of his tender. After careful consideration, the jury decided on the award of the main prize of HUF 100,000 on Friday evening.
In mid-August, the theater invited young people between the ages of 14 and 30 with a composer’s vein to play a creative task to play a piece of the musical youth performance, János Toldija of the Csokonai Theater, in the 2020/21 season, individually or with a band. Candidates could make / arrange 1 or 2 verses of the narrative poem of their choice according to their own taste. The call for proposals also gave a free hand to revise the text.
An audio recording of the musical work had to be submitted by the applicants by 13 November 2020. Covering a wide range of genres, a total of 13 entries and songs were sent to the theater’s e-mail address, individual, double and orchestral forms, mostly from Debrecen, but recordings were also sent from Törökszentmiklós, Gyula and Szigetszentmiklós.
The details of the arranged poems were decided by a jury of well-known Hungarian musicians and the creators of the theatrical performance. The members of the jury were Balázs Szabó, singer, songwriter, András Süli, festival organizer, cultural manager, Péter Valcz, director of Toldi, and Rita Ádám and Benedek Darvas, composers of Toldi.
After careful consideration, the members of the jury awarded the first prize to Máté Hodossi. In the second place were Péter Kiss and Erika Molnár, in the third place Gergely Bíró, in the fourth place Gábor Mészáros, and in the fifth place Diána Várhelyi. The best song receives a HUF 100,000 creative grant, and the Csokonai Theater organizes a live music concert to present the songs – as the epidemic eases.
The author of the winning song, according to the jury, really treated the task as a challenge, shaking up the literary text. Balázs Szabó appreciated that the author reached for the original text in a modern, yet respectful way, reflecting on the entire literary work. They also agreed that The Czech Headlessness is a well-structured, creative, humor-free fieldwork, it works best as a song, and even, according to Péter Valcz, it is an extremely twisting party music that can stand its ground anywhere.
– Csokonai Theater –
The winning song performed by the author:
