#56 Roland Dénes- Timpanist for the Budapest Festival Orchestra
Today's guest is Roland Dénes who is the timpanist for the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Roland was born in Szolnok, in 1974. He started his music studies in his hometown, then continued them in Budapest under Gábor Madarassy. In 1989 he was admitted to the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music, where he studied with Oszkár Schwartz. In 1993 he won a prize at the National Percussion Competition and started his studies at the Franz Liszt College of Music, where he earned his degree in 1997. From 1996 until 2006 he was a member of the BM Duna Symphony Orchestra. As of 1998 he has been involved in the productions of the BFO. From 2009 he regularly gives master classes in Hungary (Franz Liszt Academy of Music, College of Music, Pécs) and abroad (University of Maryland, USA, Columbus, USA). As of 2011 he has been invited to work with foreign orchestras (Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Radio France). Since 2010 he has been an official representative of the Fromme Company in Vienna. He has been a regular guest artist at the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015.
Marcos just returned from Cuba where he traveled with the band led by Marc Quinones and Bobby Allende called 8 Y Mas (Ocho Y Mas) for the Havana Jazz Plaza Festival.
Pictured here is Marcos Torres with friends of the show Marc Quinones, Bobby Allende, Marcos Lopez, Javier Raez and the great Chucho Valdez.
Some of the people Marcos met and spent time with down in Cuba are: Alain Perez, Alexander Abreu, & Haila Mompie. Traveling to the school of music, he got to watch a class led by the great Jose Luis Quintana, better known as Changuito. When the bus broke down, one of the people that helped push was Shortstop turned manager, Ozzie Guillen.
The new recorder Damon got and just started using is the Zoom H6 handheld recorder and you can check it out HERE.
The new book Damon mentions in the Educational Spotlight is "The Masters of the Vibes" by Anthony Smith. That book along with other marimba and vibraphone literature is available at Mostly Marimba
Marcos will be playing percussion with Luis Fonsi on the Grammys this coming Sunday.
RIP to Hugh Masekela. The song featured was "Grazing in the Grass" The other iconic recording is "Vale Todo" by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas.
Damon is playing Djembe in the new season of the show 'The Path' streaming on Hulu along with Doug Hinrichs and Valerie Naranjo.
Music News...........
Amazon's stock has been rising after they raised the price on the monthly Prime membership. The Yearly membership price has stayed the same though. These are some ideas on how to adjust to the new algorithms that will be coming out on Facebook soon. Those changes were mentioned in last week's episode. Here are some simple tips on how to sing better and ultimately become more employable. The clave app Marcos mentioned can be found HERE if you have an iPhone or HERE if you have Android.
Roland starts the interview with talking about some of the operas written by Mozart that the orchestra has played. Here's a list of the Mozart Operas he wrote. The Verdi opera he mentions is Falstaff.
Iván Fischer is the conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. If you want to follow the orchestra, their website is HERE.
This is some info on the Christmas (Anniversary) Concert where the audience chooses what gets played.
The Music Academy of Budapest is where Roland got a lot of his training during his school years.
This was the episode Damon refers to with the xylophone in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.
This is the episode of Tom and Jerry where Tom plays Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt.
The conductor from Japan Roland mentions is Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi. The eating champion Damon mentions is Takeru Kobayashi. No word yet on if they are related.
The piece that inspired Roland to play the timpani was "Fountains of Rome" by Ottorini Respighi
The different grips Roland talks about can be found in this VIDEO. The German and French grips are the most popular. The Dutch grip he refers to can also be known as the American grip. Not mentioned is the Hinger grip, where you hold the mallet with your last two fingers (ring and pinky) and the first three fingers are a bit more loose (thumb, index and middle).
Roland mentions the Adams Percussion Festival in the Netherlands. The last one was in 2016. Stay tuned for the next one. He also mentions playing the Dresden Timpani at the front of the orchestra for Beethoven's 5th symphony. Here is a history of the evolution of the timpani drums.
The opera Fidelio by Beethoven helped force the evolution of the timpani drum.
Roland talks about Béla Bartók being one of the most famous Hungarian composers.
The Schnellar system is when the bowl or kettle moves while the hoop is fixed. These are the drums Roland uses. Roland also uses Kalfo timpani heads from Ireland.
The teacher Roland studied with is Gábor Madarassy who passed away in a tragic car accident.
Roland uses Raymond Curfs Playwood Timpani Mallets, Lara Zanolo Timpani Mallets, The Fromme Vienna Mallets. The practice pad Roland uses is the InSound Mallet Practimpads. Roland is endorsed by Adams Timpani.
You can find and follow Roland on Facebook or Instagram as well as the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
