The Amadinda Percussion Group is a music group that was created in Budapest in 1984 by four musicians who had recently finished studying at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music.
Since its founding, the group has had two main goals: to share percussion music that many Hungarians had not heard before, and to perform the works of modern Hungarian composers both in Hungary and around the world. One of their key goals is to encourage Hungarian and international composers to write new music for percussion instruments. In recent years, they have also focused on studying traditional percussion music, creating original music by group members, and writing down important percussion pieces for future performances.
From the start, Amadinda has worked with famous artists such as John Cage (recording all of his percussion music), Steve Reich, Bruno Canino, Peter Eötvös, Rosemary Hardy, András Keller, Zoltán Kocsis, György Kurtág, György Ligeti, András Schiff, Zoltán Jeney, and Istvan Marta.
Awards
- 1984 Stipendium Prize, Darmstadt
- 1985 Gaudeamus International Interpreters Award, Amsterdam, First Prize
- 1986 Prize of Hungarian Composers’ Association for excellent interpretation of Hungarian works
- 1987 Recording of the Year by Hungaroton
- 1988 Ferenc Liszt Prize by the Hungarian Government
- 1991, 1998 Prize of Society ARTISJUS Hungarian Bureau for the Protection of Authors’ Rights
- 1997 Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic
- 2002 Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Z. Rácz)
- 2004 Kossuth Prize by the Hungarian Government
- 2006 Pro Urbe Budapest Prize