The Kiezsalon rounds out the 2025 season at the Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin-Mitte across two evenings in November. For our final show of the year, we present Japanese vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita, Hungarian flute artist Róbert Kerényi and instrument maker Thorn Wych. This follows on from Wednesday’s program featuring KUUNATIC, OHYUNG and Szilvia Bognár.
Japanese vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita blends ambient, jazz and electronic influences. Having released three solo vibraphone albums between 2013 and 2018 – as well as improvising collaborations with Jan Jelinek and Guy Andrews – he switched focus to marimba on his 2021 album Bird Ambience. Inspired by bird migrations and his own move from Berlin back to Japan, his 2024 album Migratory incorporated field recordings and, according to Pitchfork, traversed “lush and sparse terrain, equally likely to illustrate a placid lake or a sun-soaked field as a jagged mountain or arid badlands.”
Róbert Kerényi ‘Szigony’ is a Hungarian musician, born in Budapest and currently living in Budakeszi. Having led the band Tatros between 1988 and 1997, he went on to form the Szigony Orchestra. He has played a key role in popularising Hungarian gyimes and Moldavian csángó music and dances, collecting folk tunes from traditional masters in these regions and learning to play traditional instruments. Szigony has collaborated with musicians including the Muzsikás ensemble, saxophonist Mihály Dresch and singer Ági Szalóki.
Thorn Wych is a musician based in Lancashire, England, who crafts her own instruments from native UK tree branches. Her pieces feature bowed string instruments, flutes and percussion, which she manipulates through pitch-bending glitches and delay pedals to create music that evokes memories of a world existing beyond the boundaries of the material realm. She released her debut album Aesthesis last year, with Foxy Digitalis noting that: “Distorted drones undulate beneath entrancing incantations as though primeval spells are being conjured and future pathways moulded.”
Having opened its doors in 2007, the new Collegium Hungaricum Berlin stands where the original institute existed from 1926 to 1944. With its Bauhaus architecture, the building is reminiscent of a modernist movement that connects Hungary and Germany. Filled with large windows, the cultural hub offers panoramic views and radiant sunlight. For the Kiezsalon we invite you to wander through the Collegium Hungaricum and experience live music across the venue’s various spaces.
