UP Alumni Teach at the ZEN University of Music

Alumni, i.e., music professionals who graduated from the University of Pécs (UP), will teach the courses of the University of Music (ZEN), which will continue in the autumn of 2022. The complex programme, which is in its 11th year of operation this year, has already brought many elements of popular music culture into the university-scientific space, and this time the courses will be held by double bassist Péter Baksa, sound engineer Zoltán Csurgai, researcher Ádám Guld, production specialist Zsanett Marton, popular music manager Barbara Tóth and HR manager Enikő Végh.

Zoli Beck (UP Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), head of award-winning ZEN University of Music, commented on the details.

Everyone is from Pécs, everyone is from UP

"It was not an intention, but rather a realization: I realized that the greatest students of the topics along which we wanted to build the autumn semester were all studyied at the University of Pécs, graduated here, and got their doctorate here.

The experience of living in Pécs is unthinkable without the university, the university citizens will become citizens of Pécs at the same time.

Probably the fact that the UP buildings are located in different parts of the city basically determines the relationship in which Pécs cannot be interpreted without the UP, and the university without the city."

The 2022 Autumn ZEN Semester

"This semester, the University of Music is focusing on the topic of communication, to put it a little bluntly. How can we address each other in society? How can we create a musical sound that is ready for dialogue? How can musicians reach out to each other and how can there be real communication among the music profession, musicians and audiences? How does it all manifest itself and work in new media spaces, how do different digital generations meet in this space?  We deal with the scientific frameworks of interpretation of all this as well as with their everyday practice.

It can also be seen that this problem is by no means only a characteristic of pop music, but of our contemporary societies in general: the spaces, content and rhetoric of public communication increasingly embarrasses the interpreter. I think that

pop music is an important part of social communication, and we in ZEN are trying to interpret that."

Everyone is welcome

"All courses at ZEN University of Music are free to attend. Students can get credits and apply from any faculty, major. This is also related to the university's message that intellectual education is not simply a narrowly defined deep knowledge of a particular discipline, but is also about knowledge about the world in general, requiring a much broader knowledge.  ZEN is also an important element of university integration: students and professors participate in courses, resolving organizational and scientific boundaries. The only thing that makes a course exclusive is that there is a maximum number of people above which it is no longer feasible to hold the course, this can mean a limit.

Anyone who wants to come, feel free to do so!" 

Zen courses were also popular in the previous semester

ZEN11 and more!

The MadeinPécs festival is our important partner, and there are many young people among the festival performers who also attend ZEN courses. Fishing on Orfű and Ördögkatlan are also events where we now traditionally have summer school programmes.

We have been relatively good at expressing over the years the way ZEN speaks, and it seems to be exciting for students: We have been around for 11 years, and suddenly I cannot even say a course that was not full. In the meantime, we have prepared the popular music culture major and are working to make sure that it can be launched within the next 1-2 years."

Kultúrfeszt 2022 – UP Cultural Festival

Those who are not yet university students can also experience the ZEN atmosphere at the UP Cultural Festival, which will take place on October 14, 2022.

Zoli Beck will be hosting an interactive workshop. Details coming soon, on the UP Cultural Festival website!

Further info:

https://www.facebook.com/zeneloegyetem/

https://zen.pte.hu/