Press & Interviews
Selected reviews, features and recognitions from the Hungarian press — in English, with the original titles for reference.
“Women’s choir and harp in harmonious communion”
Bergische Morgenpost · 7 March 2023 · Concert review
A review of a spiritual concert by the Seismon Ensemble from Wuppertal at the Lutheran Church. The programme brought together women’s choir and harp in an unusual combination, with Csilla Gulyas accompanying the singers on harp. The repertoire ranged from Bach and Brahms to Schütz and César Franck, alongside folk-song arrangements and Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise. The audience responded with sustained applause, and the concert also gathered donations for earthquake relief in the region between Syria and Turkey.
German: „Frauenchor und Harfe in trauter Harmonie.”
Artisjus Music Teacher Award — classical category
Fidelio / MTI · 18 December 2018 · Recognition
In 2018 the Hungarian authors’ rights society Artisjus honoured her with its Music Teacher Award in the classical category — a distinction reserved for teachers who devote themselves to passing on and championing contemporary Hungarian music, so that the next generation of musicians can both understand and perform it.
Hungarian: „Artisjus Zenetanári Díj — komolyzene.”
The five-thousand-year-old instrument — a history of the harp
Fidelio · October 2017 · 19th International Harp Festival, Budapest
For its nineteenth edition the International Harp Festival, led by Andrea Vigh, moved from Gödöllő to the Mirror Hall of Budapest’s Festetics Palace. Csilla took part in the opening concert — a programme tracing the harp’s golden age of 1720–1820, with original works by Cardon, Petrini, Nadermann, Krumpholtz and Spohr and Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp — appearing alongside Andrea Vigh, Béla Drahos and the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra.
Hungarian: „Az ötezer éves hangszer – A hárfa története.”
“There are no hopeless cases — only, so far, too little time”
Parlando · 2015/4 · Interview by Zsuzsa Refi
A portrait in the music-education journal Parlando. She speaks about wanting to bring harp music to as wide an audience as possible — teaching adults as well as children, with no age limit; her students range from preschoolers to people past sixty, and she can pass those she can no longer take on to her own former pupils, several of whom now teach. She describes a patient, analytic, student-centred method: shared choice of repertoire, never abandoning a piece, real interest in each child. Beyond teaching she founded Hungary’s first harp trio, organises festivals and summer camps, makes recordings and gives crossover concerts, and is writing a harp method book. She is harp teacher at the Kodály Zoltán Hungarian Choir School, a vice-president of the Association of Music Teachers (ZETA), and the Hungarian representative of the Camac harp workshop — holding, as she puts it, that a teacher’s credibility rests on being an active artist, which four albums and many concerts allow her to be.
Hungarian: „Nincs reménytelen eset, csak az idő volt még kevés…” — Gulyás Csilla minden korosztályt örömmel tanít a hárfázás szeretetére.
“Playing the harp — anyone, anytime”
Magyar Fórum · 6 August 2015 · Interview
A full-page profile by Gizella Papolczy and Attila Medveczky, following her path from the Kodály choir school to her four albums. She reflects on the harp’s revival as a solo and chamber instrument, the practical realities of a life split between performing, teaching and recording, and her wish to carry the instrument to new audiences and students.
Hungarian: „Misztikus hangszer — Hárfázni bárki, bármikor.”
“Her instrument can do even more”
Gramofon · Summer 2015 · Classical Sonatas for Harp
Reviewer FK welcomes her turn to the late-18th-century flowering of the harp — from the earliest solo work written for the pedal harp, by C. P. E. Bach, through two technically demanding sonatas to the young Mozart’s violin sonata, whose keyboard part the harp takes up here, played with violinist Ernő Kállai. A warm notice for a well-chosen, historically curious programme.
Hungarian: „Klasszikus szonáták hárfára.”
“Tuning the soul for Christmas”
Metropol · 7 December 2012 · Interview / Christmas feature
A Christmas-season profile combining conversation about teaching, the harp and Advent with practical concert information. Csilla describes the harp as an instrument that has become increasingly accessible: while opportunities to study it were once very limited, more people have since encountered it and wanted to learn. She also discusses the instrument’s difficulty, noting that it is comparable to the piano in some respects and that it can be begun later in life, while she teaches both children and adults. The feature also announces two December concerts, including a programme of romantic and baroque repertoire.
Hungarian: „Lelkileg felkészít a karácsonyra.”
“An added dimension that never lets them grow tiring”
RTV Újság · May 2012 · Baroque
On her third solo album — thirteen baroque favourites by Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi and five others, all transcriptions recoloured for the harp. The reviewer finds that hearing these evergreens in a new timbre is exactly what keeps them from wearing thin.
Hungarian: „Baroque.”
“Harp concert with Csilla Gulyas”
Metropol · December · Advent concert
A Christmas-season concert listing announcing Csilla Gulyas’s now-established Advent harp concert. The programme featured intimate classical harp repertoire, with the Kodály Zoltán Hungarian Choir School’s Children’s Chamber Choir as the guest ensemble, adding a choral dimension to the festive evening. The concert took place at the Cistercian Church of St Imre on Villányi út.
Hungarian: „Hárfakoncert Gulyás Csillával.”
“By the end, we come to love it”
Heti Válasz · 29 March 2007 · My Harp
A review of her debut, run under the headline “Bach and the Pink Panther.” The critic, D. M., notes the deliberately crowd-pleasing, personal programme — from Amélie to the Pink Panther, Salzedo dances, a Bach prelude, the Albinoni Adagio — and is won over by the sheer beauty of the playing.
Hungarian: „Az én hárfám — Bach és a rózsaszín párduc.”
