Since 1987, Cambridge has had a second twin city, Szeged in southern Hungary.
Eastern Europe was beginning to emerge from under the Soviet blanket. Szeged is very outward looking and now has around twenty twins: Nice, Cambridge, Parma and a handful in surrounding eastern European countries. The Cambridge Szeged Society was set up in the late 1990s – to ensure proper exploration of the rich Hungarian cultural history. Here’s a flavour of our exchange activities over the years, and some upcoming cultural events we have planned.
Two university cities with strengths in medicine and pharmaceutical research; development of cultural ties has been the focus, particularly over the last two decades.
Music
Since 2011, the acclaimed Szeged folk-music ensemble Mentés Máskent has visited a dozen times, including a performance for Cambridge Summer Music’s Sounds Green and at the Big Day Out in 2017. They also blend very well with the Georgian Music group directed by James Eisner – who has provided the support group for recent visits. In addition, Tűndé and Géza have toured here twice with their school group – and achieved getting 60 odd academics to participate in Hungarian folk dance, which must be a record!
A consort from the König Király School (one of several specialist Szeged music schools) visited in 2008/9, and the Argenteus University Choir has also toured here twice. Finding venues for their concerts has been a great delight – as was planning the visits to London for the school groups.
Cambridge College choirs started visiting Szeged in 2014, the earliest and most recent being St Catharine’s in 2014, and 2024; the next, planned for 2026, will be from Great St Mary’s directed by Alex Berry (who also took the second small choir out in 2015, from Ely Cathedral).
Science
The Cambridge Szeged Society facilitates joint ventures while running an annual programme of talks and concerts. Recent talks included “What is Mental Illness?” – by Szeged-born, Fulbourn-based consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Dudas.
Visits have also been organised for prize winning Hungarian Science school groups – who were delighted to see the phial of grey powder at the Biochemistry department – carefully preserved since the 1920’s research on vitamin C, by a Szeged medical student. One school in Szeged had four maths undergraduates and one maths PhD student studying at Cambridge last year.
Prints, pots, embroidery…
Since 2005, the Cambridge Szeged Society has sponsored local artists to take part at the Cambridge stall at Bridge Fair – where we promote our home city along with delegations from Szeged’s many other sister cities, such as Nice and Parma. The overlapping wine festival is just another happy coincidence!
Local artists to date include two painters, two print artists, two photographers, two ceramicists – and an ornithologist. Several Szeged artists have had exhibitions here and two exhibitions of children’s art have also been shown in both venues – instigated by Nicholas Juett, our 2008 artist.
Cambridge has also had an exhibition of Hungarian Embroidery. Last year also saw the 2nd Exhibition in Cambridge by the Érem Verde Mint, based in Szeged – with their selection of medals and ceremonial coins. The Museum of Cambridge hosted the event – extended to eight weeks – who were thrilled with the 2,061 footfall. The artwork of local line drawing artist, Anna Cowie, taken to Szeged in 2023, also featured there, leading to her now designing a medal for the Érem Verde mint.
At the suggestion of a Szeged photography group in 2024, the current project is a video Music and Architecture in two twin cities – featuring Schola Cantorum, directed by Graham Walker – in ancient, modern and Renaissance Cambridge venues. 2 of 3 recording sessions are now complete and further funding is sought to have this ready by the end of 2025. A similar reciprocal film of the remarkable Art Nouveau architecture of Szeged (largely rebuilt after the 1869 flood) and suitable musical content will supply the other half of the video. This should be available for artistic and educational use from later in 2026. Another local camera group is now engaged with their Szeged counterparts, providing images of unusual aspects of Cambridge for an exhibition there next month.
And now…
2025 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian composer Mátyás Seiber – to be commemorated with two Cambridge concerts, showcasing twentieth-century Hungarian music. On 11 October, a cello, clarinet and piano trio will perform at St Catharine’s Chapel at 6pm.
Before that, however, come and join us for a piano recital on 30 April at St Botolph’s church, Cambridge, at 1.10pm by Patrick Hemmerlé and Dr. Laszlo Stacho from Szeged, teacher at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. We keep our concerts free with retiring collection as far as possible. Membership is also free.
You can find past newsletters and current events on our website at www.cambridge-szeged-society.org.uk. There is also a Facebook “Friends of Cambridge Szeged” group. And we welcome new members and ideas.
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