Art groups | TALAMBA PERCUSSION GROUP GÖDÖLLŐ
Artistic leader: Levente Zombor
Tel.: +36 (30) 239-6901
website: www.talamba.hu
e-mail: levi@talamba.hu
Rehersal room: House of Arts Gödöllő
The Talamba Percussion Group Gödöllő was founded in 1999. The five percussionist student made friendship at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music and while doing their studies the similarity of their creativity and ideas forged them into a team. Their friendship is unbroken; the group has played in the same set-up since the beginning. Their goal is to show and reconciliate popular and classical music to a wide range of people with the help of percussions. The music of Talamba is the music of the 21st century: it is characterised by diversity and a peaceful coexistence of different genres. They feel at home in the different musical styles and also often use the repertoire of musical humour. During their shows they travel across the world of music in space and time. It is important for them to play their own pieces which often resemble the music of different folks from the Hungarian folk songs through the melodies of the Balkan to African rhythms; on the other hand some of their pieces are rooted in classical music. The repertoire of Talamba includes jazz classics, classical crossovers and contemporary pieces: ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ by Mussorgsky or fugues of Bach can be heard in a unique scoring or adaptation. Beside the high standard musical performance spectacle also plays an important role during their concerts: several hundreds of instruments are played at every concert of the group.
The Talamba has a mission: the musical education of younger generations. Every year about
20 000 children have the chance to go to their concerts demonstrating different instruments nationwide.
In cooperation with the National Philharmony they have wandered the country with their unique music lesson since 2001, thus young people living in the most disadvantaged areas can also have the chance to experience live culture. They are regular performers at national and international festivals, charity events, touristic, medical and business conferences and other exhibitions.
We recommend our programmes to the organisers of cultural institutes, festivals, company or other events. Their diverse musical repertoire makes it possible to satisfy individual musical needs, too. The group also deals with composing or scoring music, composing accompaniments or signals.
2007 was an important year in the life of the Percussion Group as they became the meritorious art group of the town of Gödöllő and their first own abum,’ Okamale’ was published.
Talamba celebrated its 10th birthday in 2009 and published a new album,’ Babel’ for this event.
Awards
2002 Cultural Award of the City of Debrecen
2003 Bronze medal, International competition in Belgium
2004 Artisjus Award acknowledging Hungarian contemporary arts and music
2005 Participation in the Semifinal of the International Luxemburg Competition
2010 Cultural Award of the Town of Gödöllő
2010 I. Terem Crossover Competition, St. Petersburg - Special Prize
2015 Pro Urbe Gödöllő Award
Talamba Percussion Group Gödöllő: László Grünvald, István Kiss, Miklós Szitha, Tamás V. Nagy and Levente Zombor
WHAT IS TALAMBA?
TALAMBA is an instrument of South Slavic origin, a "pot drum", considered to be the ancestor of timpani, a set of kettledrums. The pot was covered with animal skin and beaten by special drumsticks. The instrument was used in pairs.