Popular programs

Two vastly different yet mutually enriching musical universes meet on the Müpa stage this evening: Söndörgő, one of Hungary’s most exciting representatives of Balkan and South Slavic musical traditions, and the world-renowned Balanescu Quartet, which masterfully combines contemporary classical music with boundary-defying creative improvisation.

This representative birthday tribute to one of the most significant writers in contemporary Hungarian literature, György Spiró, promises a unique experience for the audience: a memorable encounter with an author who recently published yet another masterpiece, the novel Padmaly.

We have made an exception in this case and will be admitting viewers even if they haven’t brought any rice, candles, newspapers or toilet paper to the screening. In fact, we’ll even let you in without wearing one of the costumes popular among hard-core devotees of The Rocky Horror Show. The musical that inspired the film had already gained its own cult following in theatres as early as 1973. This is a parody that draws its humour from sci-fi and horror films.

The globally beloved Portuguese genre of fado is already familiar to the Müpa audience, and now one of its greatest contemporary stars is visiting Budapest for the first time. Nominated for a Latin Grammy, Carminho is a true heir to her mother, Teresa Siqueira, and was celebrated as the genre’s great hope in 2005, even before she reached the age of 20.

Szüts Apor – zongora
Budafoki Dohnányi Zenekar
Vezényel: Hollerung Gábor

It did not take long for a chance meeting between Krisztina Tóth, a highly popular, multi-volume poet and writer living in London, and Nikoletta Szőke, a vocalist who has spread her wings on the Hungarian jazz scene in recent years, to lead to a fruitful collaboration. Their uncompromising artistic approaches inspired a unique, remarkably exciting and singular experiment rooted in the dialogue between poetry and song.

Miles Davis, one of the most recognisable figures in jazz history, would have celebrated his hundredth birthday in 2026. To mark the occasion, a star trumpet player in the world of contemporary jazz, Ambrose Akinmusire, has come together with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra to embark on a joint tour, honour the giant of the genre, pay tribute to his legacy, and go beyond it by creating new works and inventive arrangements that reimagine the Miles Davis’s genius in the context of modern jazz.

A band committed to modernising Indian classical music, Araj consists of five young musicians considered in their homeland to be the outstanding performers of their generation. Formed by tabla player Ishaan Ghosh, all members are virtuosos of their instruments (tabla, sitar, bamboo flute, sarangi) and vocal techniques, and their interplay breathes new life into the Indian classical tradition.

Three stories taking place over the course of a single night in Memphis, seen from three different points of view. Jim Jarmusch has come up with an incredibly exciting storytelling technique for this film. (He has often chosen unusual narrative forms in his later works.) Furthermore, he only reveals it in the second part of the triptych.

Born in Vilnius and with Armenian roots, the soprano Asmik Grigorian is one of the biggest favourites – and no longer an outside favourite – on today’s international opera scene.

Born in Vilnius and with Armenian roots, the soprano Asmik Grigorian is one of the biggest favourites – and no longer an outside favourite – on today’s international opera scene.

Born 125 years ago, László Németh rightly deserves a place on any list of the most significant authors of 20th-century Hungarian literature. This programme aims not only to commemorate the writer’s diverse oeuvre, but also to encourage the audience to reread and rediscover it by recalling passages, both familiar and lesser-known, selected from different eras of his career.

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, Söndörgő is Müpa Budapest’s Ensemble of the Season, which means it will be giving several concerts that break with tradition in the course of the 2025-26 season. Among these will be an evening founded on international collaboration that features three outstanding musicians from the world-renowned progressive jazz-funk-fusion band Snarky Puppy: Michael League, Jay Jennings, and Chris Bullock.

Michael Mayo’s family legacy and natural talent paved the way for him to blossom as an artist and eventually achieve global fame. As the third vocalist to graduate from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, he has worked alongside the institute’s founder, Herbie Hancock, as well as with Kneebody, Christian Sands and Gretchen Parlato.

Like Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese is passionately in love with New York City. There is no doubt, however, that Scorsese sees a different city. His is dirtier, edgier, and slightly more full of crime and criminals. Scorsese’s home turf is Little Italy, in Lower Manhattan. On the other hand, New York, New York clearly shows that the two are both jazz fans.

One thing we know for certain about the 21st century is that it will be when the survivors of the Holocaust take their last breath. Every single one of them. Slowly but surely, they are leaving us to our own devices. “Do we want to forget what happened, as if it were a bad dream, or do we want to accept the events as human civilization’s greatest trauma?” the author Péter Esterházy once asked.

Many people were surprised when, after a successful two-year streak during which they won the A38 talent competition known as Talentométer and conquered stages across Europe, including Müpa Budapest, makrohang split up. They then caused another, more pleasant surprise with the news in 2023 that they would be reviving what they themselves call their “jazz for metalheads” sound.

It is not exclusively Hungarians that Müpa Budapest honours with the prestigious title of Artist of the Season: foreign musicians, such as the Russian piano virtuoso Denis Matsuev, for instance, have also been distinguished in this way. The prerequisites are obvious: a high level of professional excellence and a fruitful relationship with Müpa Budapest.

In the original language, with Hungarian subtitles.

The discussions before and after the screening will be conducted in Hungarian.

The MET’s contemporary highlight of the 2025-2026 season centres on, arguably, art history’s most famous painter couple, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

The MET’s contemporary highlight of the 2025-2026 season centres on, arguably, art history’s most famous painter couple, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

This provocative artist, who continually steps beyond conventional aesthetic frameworks, has, in recent years, published grotesque, absurd, ironic, and irresistibly entertaining poems under the pseudonym Sándor Posztpetőfi, collected in the volume entitled Szibériai borbély (The Barber of Siberia). Szilágyi Ákos is joined on what promises to be an unforgettable evening by the exceptional guitarist of the Makám ensemble, Zoltán Krulik.

Tárkány-Kovács Bálint verseit elsősorban a Tárkány Művek lemezeiről ismerhette meg a közönség, ám ezek csupán három évtizednyi költészetének töredékét mutatják föl. Általában megzenésített versekről van szó, itt azonban olyan dalokról, amelyek megmaradtak versnek, mert ének helyett a beszéd maradt elsődleges médiumuk.

Known for her sensitive interpretation of roles, the Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund will once again demonstrate in this evening of lieder what an outstanding performer of the German repertoire she is.

In the original language, with Hungarian subtitles.

The discussions before and after the screening will be conducted in Hungarian.