Kairosz quartet


I organised Kairosz quartet in November 2004 with the help of Gyermán Júlia and Molnár Zsófia.

Its members were as follows:

   Gyermán Júlia – violin
   Molnár Zsófia – violin
   Cs. Nagy Tamás – viola
   Sipos Gergő – cello

I played keyboard instruments: the ensemble was called Vedres Csaba and the Kairosz Quartet.

Our debut concert was held in November 2004 at the Fonó Buda Music Hall (at that time Fodor Tamás was the viola player). In our first three concerts (November and December 2004, March 2005) we combined electronic and acoustic music. After these initial experiments, Kairosz found its true identity in the classical piano quintet sound: after May 2005, all our performances were played in this setting.

In March 2005, Fodor Tamás left the ensemble due to his many other commitments. We parted from him in friendship, thanking him for his work. After that we were without a violist for almost one and a half months. In May 2005 Móré László helped us out with his excellent stand-in, and almost at the same time we found our permanent viola player, Cs. Nagy Tamás, with whom we played for the first time on 11 June 2005 at the Liszt Academy.

What was the aim of Kairosz? To perform accessible contemporary "classical" music. One of the possible ways out of the crisis of contemporary avant-garde music was to elevate popular music—as a common musical language—to high culture. The controversial situation of Kairosz stems from this point. Those who wish to be entertained by our music, will be disappointed, since the music of Kairosz is unsuitable as entertaining or background music. On the other hand, those who expect "standard classical music" will be disappointed as well, since the works of Mozart, Schubert or Bartók are not part of our repertoire.

Our long-term goal was to occupy a mid-term position in the music scene, similar to that of the Brodsky and Kronos Quartets, since the members of the quartet were all educated graduates of the Academy of Music, who, in addition to their various symphonic and chamber orchestra jobs, also worked as music teachers, while my work represented the "other side".

Our first CD, Blessed Time, was released in December 2006. It includes a four-movement piano quintet and two rock covers, Toxicity by System of a Down and The Siren Song by Van Der Graaf Generator. Our second album, Give my regards to Chick Corea – Children's Songs variations (2007), features transcriptions of Corea's piano cycle for piano or piano quintet, as well as musical commentaries on these works.

We have played in many venues in Budapest and in the countryside. Our ensemble has been a regular guest of the annual Festival of the Reformed Music (Budapest), we have performed at the Liszt Academy and at the Valley of Arts Festival in Kapolcs, and in September 2008 we performed a joint evening with the poet Kovács-Cohner Róbert. Our last concert was in February 2010. A few days later, due to my panic attacks, the ensemble was unable to continue its performances, and its activities sadly came to an end without a farewell concert or official "break-up". To our great delight, the material from our two CDs is still regularly broadcast on several radio stations to this day.