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Introduction


- Our ancestors
- The "modern" history of the orchestra
- Our plans
- People we are proud of

 

Our ancestors

The history Wind orchestra goes back to 1936, when a levente orchestra worked in the settlement. Its leader was Hankó László.

In 1940 the war interposed and the working of the orchestra broke.

In 1950 the orchestra of workers was founded, which was supported by the Alkaloida Factory of Chemistry. Unfortunately, the factory of chemistry could support the orchestra for only a few years. After that, the musical instruments got into the property of the local music school, the Brass Orchestra of the National Primary School of Tiszavasvári was founded. The primary school looked after the supply, because from 1960, the children could learn in music classes.

In the school there was a Pioneer Orchestra, and the adults were the members of the Orchestra of Workers. Later this orchestra continued its work as a Fire Engine Orchestra. The music loving of Hankó László played an important rule in endearing the music and the wind music with the inhabitants. Amongst others he dealt with composing pieces of music and rearranging of famous pieces. The orchestra has taken part on different festivals, where they got successes and won festivals.

Hankó László kept tabs on the young talents. One of his most talented students was Dohos László, who is the chief conductor of the Wind Orchestra of the Hungarian National Army, Liszt Awarded conductor. With the motivation of Hankó László, Dohos László has continued his studies on the martial music in Budapest (1965). Then he graduated at the Music Academy of Moscow, and got into the orchestra of Veszprém first, then to Budapest. Today, he is the Chairman of the Hungarian Wind orchestras and Majorette Groups Association.
Among the several talented students of Hankó László, Cicás Ferenc excelled, who first studied at the Secondary School of Music, then at the Music College in Debrecen.

After the death of Hankó László(1969), Hankó Zoltán took over the control over the orchestra. The orchestra of the town broke up in the 1970s.

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The "modern" history of the orchestra

The Wind orchestra of the town was reorganized in 1994 with 35 people by the help of Cicás Ferenc. The music school moved into a new building and adopted the name of Hankó László. The founders of the Orchestra were the students of the music school and the former musicians of the Fire Engine orchestra. The wind orchestra has been present in the public life of the town, on public assemblies, on national feasts and on cultural and entertaining programs since 1994.

Two years after the foundation of the orchestra, we got International Golden Diploma in show category in 1996. We keep count of amongst our first important concerts when we could march on the streets of Nyíregyháza, within the confines of Nyírségi Ősz program series. We have performed in several settlement of the county, and the number of the concerts keeps growing in every year.

At first we performed without a majorette group, and then the leader of the Várda Mistral Majorette Group of Kisvárda, Szilágyi Zoltánné contacted us to work with them. Thus the first traveling to abroad has come into existence, when we traveled to France with the girls of Kisvárda. After this journey, a close relationship evolved between the Várda Mistral Majorette Group and the orchestra. In the following years we performed together on several inland and outland concerts. For example we met with success on the annual Festival for Wind orchestras in Mezőkövesd, but we succeeded on other settlement of the country very much.

We prepared for our annual birthday concerts with great enthusiasm where we sound our instruments under the lead of Colonel Dohos László, which was always a great honour for us.

In 1998, we went on the stage with the majorette group of Tiszavasvári, too, and got to the festival of Sárvár with them. In this year we traveled to Poland with majorette group of Kisvárda, and Romania, where were participants of the Csepűrágó Ünnep program series. After the great success, the organizers invited us again in 1999. In this year, besides several inland performances, we went to Italy and Belgium. We were in Minturno, in Italy, with the Várda Mistral Majorette Group where were took part on an international festival, and represented our town and country.

We traveled to Belgium with the majorette group of the Sambo Cultural Association. We met with success with the girls of Debrecen in Hungary too; we gained third prize on the Virágkarnevál of Debrecen.

In 2000, the number of the domestic performances grew, and we took on 60-70 performances. In this year we crossed the border of Hungary again, and we could go to another tour to Belgium with the majorette group of Debrecen. During the 3-week performance series, we spent one week in Meersburg, in Germany. The local orchestra acted as host. Then we played in Strassbourg and in Luxemburg. During the last fortnight, we played in several settlements in Belgium, undertook 6-7 performances a day.

In 2001, the domestic performances dominated the life of the orchestra. We took part on festivals in Balatonalmádi, Mezőkövesd and Nyíregyháza, among others. The growing successes of our orchestra are proved by the fact that we were called back to several festivals. Among others we took part on the festival in Minturno, Italy, again in 2002. The home audience welcomed us with pleasure, of course, and we fulfilled the different invitations gladly.

In 2003, we traveled to Castelnuovo di Porto with the Majorette Group of Tiszavasvári, to build a twin-city relationship with them. The specialty of the journey was, that the orchestra played a Hungarian march to John Paul II, because we could visit the Vatican City, thanked to our hosts. For this journey, the present conductor of the orchestra accompanied the orchestra, Aranyi Imre.

The summer of 2003 closed with a sorrowful event, because the (re)organizer conductor of the orchestra, Cicás Ferenc, died. The emptiness he left behind himself will never be over, the founder members will always keep the remembrance of him, and keep working, because they thank to him that they come like wind music, and that it became the part of their lives. After the death of Cicás Ferenc, the orchestra touched the bottom, but after this sad event we had to recover, and it is thanked to Aranyi Imre, the present conductor of the orchestra.

In 2004, the orchestra could put down successes again. We must emphasize the important event and achievement we reached on the Fire Engine Festival in Gyula. Here, we got surcharge for the best repertoire, and the blue ribbon of the festival, which meant the recognition of both the jury and the audience. We celebrated our 10th jubilee in 2004.

In 2005, besides several inland performances, we took part on a monumental festival in Montenegro.

We have recorded three albums so far. The first one contains the pieces heard on our jubilee concert in 2001, the second includes marches for majorette groups, and the third is the transcription of the 10th jubilee concerts.

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Our plans

There are 35 permanent members in our orchestra (the youngest is 10 the oldest is 40 years old), most of them are pupils or students on different colleges and universities. The basic of the music life is ensured by the Hankó László Music School, which has more than a hundred students. So the supply is ensured. Our orchestra looks for opportunities to perform on at least one monumental festival every year. We have entertained the audiences of several countries, and in this year we will be able to get to oversea.

In the beginning of 2006, we got an invitation from the United States of America. Out transcript got to the Hungarian-German friendship organization, and the members liked it, so they officially invited us an Octoberfest festival in September. Of course we were took delight in the invitation, and we would like to fulfill it. This opportunity is very important to us, we will be able to represent our town and country at oversea. This performance means an excellent occasion to represent our country rightly. Among others we will represent the European culture, with that of Hungary in it, and the traditions of the Hungarian wind music.

In our repertoire there are numerous pieces of music: from the arrangements of classical music and Hungarian marches, to light music pieces, everything can be. We make our repertoire colourful with film music and successful hits. We prepare for our American performances differently, besides the Hungarian pieces, we would like to endear with German songs to American-German and American-Hungarian people. We do our best to give back the mood of the original Octoberfest.

Like every civil organization, we have to solve different problems in order to this journey can come true. Of course, our orchestra will do its best to represent Hungary on this monumental program.

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People we are proud of

Our orchestra is proud of several people, who started their music profession in our town, and became the most notable figures of the Hungarian music life:

Dohos László: colonel, main conductor of the Windorchestra of the Hungarian Army, Liszt-prized conductor, Chairman of the Hungarian Wind orchestras and Majorette Groups Association
Tokár József: professional martial musician, member of the Military Band of Eger
Tokár Zoltán: professional martial musician, member of one of the Martial Band in Budapest

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