Music director calls time on his career
Maidenhead: George to conduct final concert at St Luke’s
A musical director is set to call time on an extraordinary career ahead of a fundraising concert next month.
Hungarian-born George Badacsonyi will be performing his final concert with the Maidenhead Choral Society in November, 40 years after his first with the group.
George moved to the UK from Budapest in 1957, and has worked with a variety of groups including the BBC Singers and Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Orchestra.
At 88-years-old, the conductor, who regularly travels from North London to rehearse with the choral society, told the Advertiser that he had avoided retirement from the Maidenhead group as he ‘enjoyed the job’.
“My wife tells me that it’s about time I stop messing around and just behave myself as a normal person who has reached this age,” joked George.
“The principal reason is because of the travelling – it takes over an hour in each direction, and the traffic is getting more and more difficult.”
On what he enjoys about the job, George said: “The normal satisfaction is when you try to get the best out of people; we are not talking about absolute standards – they don’t exist, whether you are the BBC singers or the Maidenhead Choral Society.
“There are no absolute standards, but there are standards in what you can actually get people to do, to achieve, and to do their very best.
“When that is being realised, it’s very satisfactory for [the singers] as well as the people who are trying to help them achieve their best.”
George told the Advertiser that he is looking forward to playing more tennis after retirement, as well as working with young people and parents on how to perform instrumentally.
Anne Hirst, chair of the Maidenhead Choral Society, said: “It’s amazing to think that when George started with us in 1982, some of our younger members weren’t yet born.
“We’re so incredibly grateful to George for guiding us and sharing his deep love of music with us so tirelessly over the last four decades.
“We will miss him of course, but we wish him a long and happy retirement full of travels with his wife Marie.”
George’s final concert will be on Saturday, November 19 from 7.30pm at St Luke’s
Church, Norfolk Road, Maidenhead.
On the programme will be the Fauré’s Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass and Insanae et Vanae Curae, Mozart’s Kyrie in D Minor, and Schubert’s The Lord is my Shepherd.
Tickets cost £12 and can be purchased on the door or at tinyurl.com/5n8r25b3