Irén Lovász

Irén Lovász is a renowned Hungarian folk singer and ethnographer. She has a total of 12 albums to her credit, including on the Erdenklang Music, CC'nC Records, Fono and Hungaroton Classics labels as well as recent CDs on her own SIRENVOICES label. She is featured on several compilations, including on the respected HEARTS OF SPACE label, WARNER MUSIC France, Minos-EMI, and other world music compilations. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Music career: Her first solo CD, Világfa (1995, and 1999. Fonó Records), appeared at the request of the Hungarian National Museum to be used as background music for the exclusive archeological exhibition of the Millennium of the Hungarian conquest. The music was created by László Hortobágyi. Her first solo CD in Germany, Rosebuds in a Stoneyard (Erdenklang 1996), received the German Critics' Award in the genre folk/world music. She was also the soloist in Early Music groups and also sang contemporary music and worked with jazz musicians. She toured in Europe with the Berlin-based jazz guitarist, Ferenc Snétberger. (see. Obsession, Enja Records 1998). She was also a member of the Gayan Uttejak Orchestra directed by László Hortobágyi. An Estonian contemporary composer, Peeter Vähi wrote new music for her voice in which she sings early medieval Tibetan and Sanskrit language texts: Supreme Silence (CC'nC Records 2000). From 1998 until 2003 she worked with the Makám group. Their project is based on ancient Hungarian folk songs, and the authentic performance of these with Irén's voice. However, it also conceives a new musical world by the composer, Zoltán Krulik, using the language of contemporary music, employing the style of ethno-jazz, and adopting different ethnic sounds and instruments of traditional cultures. Their collaborative CDs are: Skanzen 1999, 9 Colinda 2001, and Sindbad 2002. (Fonó Records) In 2000 she was invited as a vocal soloist by the Hungarian World Music orchestra. From 1999 she worked for some years with the Czech-Moravian-Slovak eclectic folk music group TEAGRASS. Their CD is titled: Wide is the Danube ( CC'nC Records 2000). Since 2001 she has been a member of the 'e-jam' project, which is a mobile formation consisting of varying European musicians and performing mainly in Austria. In 2001 she performed repeated sold out concerts with a repertoire of Hungarian Renaissance music, songs and poems, with the classical lute player, István Kónya. In 2001 she began her next project, an acoustic duo with a contrabass player, Attila Lőrinszky. In 2003 she received The SINGER OF THE YEAR eMeRton AWARD in Hungary. In 2005 she founded a new band, and with them she made a new cd: Cloud doors (Hungaroton Classic 2005). The new music is based on archaic Hungarian folk songs, sacred songs and medieval Gregorian chants. The style is ethno-jazz, worldmusic, crossover. In 2006 on her own new label she started to publish a new CD series on Healing Voices, which was also recommended by the Hungarian Association of Music Therapists: Sacred Voice, (SIRENVOICES 2006), Inner Voice, (SIRENVOICES 2007). In 2008 she accomplished a crossover project with renown musicians of varied musical backgrounds, like Kornél Horváth (jazz), Béla Ágoston (folk, ethno-jazz) and István Győri, Zsolt Szabó (early music). The music is based on Hungarian Renaissance love poetry, folksongs and dance tunes of the 16-18th centuries. The CD is titled: Flower in Love, (SIRENVOICES 2008.) In 2009 she made a third, revised, remixed edition of her famous Világfa CD with László Hortobágyi : Világfa (SIRENVOICES 2009.) From 2009 to the present she has been leading a weekly therapeutic singing circle in the center of Budapest aimed at healing, communion and personal expression, all in line with her HEALING VOICES album series concept.

Source: Wikipedia

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