I BÉLA BARTÓK AND CHARLES SIMONYI Béla Bartók and Charles Simonyi The American of Hungarian origin sponsors the Bartók project of the

In overseeing the development of the Micro- The highlight of the Philharmonic’s opening soft Word and Excel applications, Charles Simonyi concert series on 27 July is Bartók’s Concerto helped to make complex technology applicable No. 1 with at the piano and at the podium. This concert will also include to everyday use by nearly every person with a Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales and Igor computer. Simonyi, born in in 1949 is Stravinsky’s Firebird. Franz Welser-Möst will conduct his an ardent admirer of Bartók. He put into the Cleveland in the No. 3 on 19 development of computer programs the same August featuring pianist and The Won - passion he put into airplanes, modern art, the derful Mandarin as well as the Concerto for Viola and understanding of the arts and sciences and the Orchestra with violist Kim Kashkashian on 24 August. conquest of space. Daniel Barenboim and will give a recital on 28 July in which Bartók’s Sonata for Two and The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, Percussion will serve as the centerpiece. Violinist Vadim founded by Charles Simonyi, has become the first Repin’s recital will feature Bartók’s Rhapsody No. 1 for foundation to make a US$ 1 million contribution and Piano on 14 August. The Quatuor Ebène to the Salzburg Festival. The motivation for this plays the String Quartet No .1 on 18 August, the Hagen gift came from Simonyi’s admiration for Bartók’s Quartet on 26 August the String Quartet No. 3. The artistic accomplishments and the Salzburg Festi - center piece of the Bartók series is a new production val’s decision to highlight the compositional legacy of Bartók’s only opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. The opera performances also include two additional works of this giant of 20 th century . “My fund is by Bartók, the Four Pieces for Orchestra and the Can - supporting the Salzburg Festival not for my per- tata Profana. The Hungarian conductor and composer sonal satisfaction but for the recognition it brings Peter Eötvös will conduct the to Bartók and Hungarian pride. The Hungarian Or chestra, Johan Simons will direct and the German visitors should feel proud that Bartók is a featured paint er Daniel Richter will be responsible for stage de - part of the program.” sign. The premiere is on 6 August in the Grosses Fest - spielhaus. Béla Bartók’s music exhibits many elements of ethno musicology. He, together with his colleagues Intendant Jürgen Flimm and Markus Hinterhäuser, including Zoltán Kodály, began venturing into the the Festival’s Concerts Director, have created a Hungarian countryside in 1908 in order to learn of the program that presents Hungarian composers musical foundations of their culture, specifically Magyar from the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire folk melodies which were assumed to be part of the to the present. They have taken great care to tradition of music-making. However, Bartók and pair work by Bartók with those of composers Kodály determined that Magyar and Gypsy were sepa - who influenced his artistic development. rate and their work led to the understanding that Ma - gyar melodies are based on pentatonic scales found

128 Festiva lfriends Charles Simonyi and Susan Hutchison © Marsel Gubaydullin

in Oriental folk music from Central Asia to Siberia. Bar - kavalier first, then La Traviata, then others. It wasn’t tók’s analyti -cal studies and ethnography were at the appropriate to take me to Wagner. Later on it was ex - forefront of and key to of an entire field pected for us to learn music. I was learning the piano of musicology known as ethnomusicology. Simonyi’s and my brother learned the violin. I learned the scales, fascination with Bartók is rooted in more than just the difference between minor and major; just the an association with his homeland. It could also have basics. Piano teaching was done using Bartók. His something to do with the scientific nature of Bartók’s Microcosmos was used to teach children; actually a work. “My mom is very musical and she played the great title…! Just tiny…very simple…practice pieces piano. When I was small and we were put to bed there for children. I’m sure somebody with talent would go were frequently all of these intellectuals at our home. through them in the first week. My progress was going Often they played a violin-piano piece. I would try to go very slowly and I didn’t like the piano very much. At asleep and somehow the music stayed with me. My about the same time I discovered computers. I had to mom would take us to the opera; we saw Rosen- approach my mom to my great distress to tell her that

Festiva lfriends 129 I BÉLA BARTÓK AND CHARLES SIMONYI

I didn’t want to practice the piano and that I instead Memorial Endowment Fund at Princeton University’s wanted to practice the computer.” Institute for Advanced Study, to honor his late father. Prior to creating his foundation, Simonyi endowed Charles Simonyi moved to the U.S. in 1968. Interes - the Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at tingly, Béla Bartók also moved to the U.S. but the rea - University in 1995, and the Charles Simonyi son was World War II; the move occurred in 1940 and Professorship in Theoretical Physics in 1997, also at the Bartók never felt completely comfortable in the U.S. Institute for Advanced Study, where he has served on given the realities of fleeing one’s homeland. For the board of trustees since 1997. Simonyi it was education that necessitated the move. He received his B.S. in Engineering Mathematics from As the fifth civilian space flight traveler, and second the University of California at Berkeley in 1972, and Hungarian in space, Simonyi’s April 2007 trip to the a doctorate in from Stanford Uni - International was the latest destination in versity in 1977. He has been a member of the Na- a life defined by exploration and discovery. Chronicling tional Academy of Engineering since 1997, elected for every step along the way from training to landing on his contributions to “widely used productivity software”. his Web site, www.charlesinspace.com, Charles Simo - He received an honorary doctorate from the University nyi further advanced his three space mission objec- of Pécs (Hungary) in 2001. tives: to advance civilian space flight, assist in space station research, and involve the world’s youth in the From 1972 to 1980, Simonyi worked at Xerox Cor- science of space travel. Simonyi’s collaborator and Ex- poration’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where ecutive Director of the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts he created the first WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what and Sciences is Susan Hutchison, who served as his you-get) text editor called . Simonyi left PARC to ‘mission coordinator’ for the Web site and educational join the Corporation, where he held the titles programs related to his two-week space flight. Hutchi - of Director of Application Development, Chief Archi - son is best known as a distinguished television news tect, and, most recently, Distinguished Engineer. He anchor, serving the Puget Sound region as a trusted left Microsoft in August 2002 to found the Intentional broadcaster and community activist for 25 years. For Software Corporation, a software engineering company much of her career at KIRO-TV (an affiliate of the CBS with an emphasis on productivity applications, where network), she anchored the highest rated newscasts he is currently President and CEO. in , receiving numerous awards, including five Emmys for producing, writing, and reporting news The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences was and documentaries. She interviewed President Ronald founded in January 2004. Its gifts have included a US$ Reagan, President Jimmy Carter, Billy Graham, and First 1 million grant to the internationally acclaimed radio Lady Laura Bush. broadcasts of the ; US$ 300,000 for the Seattle Opera’s International Wagner Compe- Charles Simonyi’s life is accompanied by his love tition and an elementary school opera project de- for . One of the pieces he loves best signed to convey the excitement of Wagner to public is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier: school children; and grants of over US$ 10 million to “Nothing can compare with J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered the Seattle Symphony, which have gone towards a Clavier. It’s a purposeful piece, a pedagogical piece. variety of activities including a “New Europe Festival” When I went to school on my own, I finally had a Hi-Fi featuring the work of Béla Bartók and other Eastern and access to LPs. Of course I started to buy classical and Central European composers. LPs and it kind of created a connection with my child - hood. I had this déjà vu sensation every time I bought In 2005, the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sci - an LP and was kind of amazed how much music I ences created the US$ 25 million Károly Simonyi recognized from my childhood.”

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