Our Famous Tenor Béla Mavrák about his Music Career, Concerts, Memories, Plans, Hobbies. Article from the Serbian regional newspaper: List Zrenjanin, by Branka Jajić, September 17, 2020. Brought to our attention and translated by Diana D. Le. Thanks Diana! He doesn't forget where he came from. What is the relationship between the scientist Albert Einstein; the most famous violinist of the 20th century, Lord Yehudi Menuhin; and the tenor from Banat, Béla Mavrák? Einstein was in the audience at the first concert of twelve-year-old Yehudi Menuhin. When Béla Mavrák was at the beginning of his career, he had the honor of giving a concert with the then famous Yehudi Menuhin. The last letter that Menuhin sent in his life was sent to Béla Mavrák, in which he thanked the young tenor for the opportunity to perform together and wished him a long and successful career. Will for the Future "Three weeks after I received the letter, in 1999, Lord Yehudi Menuhin passed away", Béla Mavrák remembers. "His letter is framed and has a special place on the wall of our house in Cologne. From people like Menuhin, I learned to love people, to respect my colleagues and to never forget where I came from in the world." "And I have friends all over the world and they are the biggest and most natural, the simplest. Of course, I learned everything that shaped my childhood and youth in my parents' home. I hope that all this will be contained in a documentary film about my life and career, which is being shot by the team of Radio Television of Vojvodina." Mavrák was born in Baden, a famous spa near Vienna, where his mother Juliana's parents lived, while his father Béla was serving his military service in Skopje. In Baden, where Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss once played, little Béla performed for the first time. After returning from military service, Father Béla Mavrák came for his wife Juliana, and his heir, who took his name and surname. He grew up in Zrenjanin, in Njegoševa Street, and then in Mihajlovo, where his parents worked at the Elementary School. He was educated in Zrenjanin, Belgrade, Germany, and Italy. If his mother had not known Maestro Slobodan Bursać, where she sent him to singing lessons, he would probably never have sung in the Youth Choir "Josif Marinković”. "My mother taught Serbo-Croatian to children whose mother tongue was Hungarian, and she also led the folklore section, did choreography, led a zither orchestra, and won awards at festivals throughout Yugoslavia. As soon as Maestro Bursać heard me, I became a chorister in "Josif" where I sang with pleasure, and he never charged me for an hour while he taught me harmony and counterpoint. I finished the Lower Music School "Josif Marinković" in Zrenjanin, along with the elementary school, then the Medical School and my parents wanted me to continue my studies." Béla Mavrák had one of the first concerts with the Youth Choir "Josif Marinković" in the Nikolajevska church in Novi Sad, where both children of Mileva Marić Einstein and Albert Einstein were baptized. "And when it was already clear to everyone that my life's calling would be music, my mother knew that I needed a more complete and broader music education. In Ljubljana, where I served in the army, I was a cook, I also played in a military orchestra, and my friends encouraged me to compose", says Béla. Cologne is, after all, his second home, although Béla says that nowhere, and he was in all parts of the world, does he feel like a foreigner. Love of Life "I met my wife at the airport in Havana, Cuba, ten years ago (2010). She came as a translator carrying a bouquet of flowers, accompanied by the Cuban Minister of Culture", Béla's memory is alive. "Translation was not necessary because Spanish is one of the seven languages ​​I speak. Emotions were mutual, we soon started hanging out, and after two years we got married. She is a manager at a hotel in Cologne. We are now going to lunch, to kebabs, to Duren, where my uncle, Josif Lukenić, a pioneer of Yugoslav jazz, once lived, who played in the RTB and RTV orchestra, and then we moved to Germany. The day is beautiful, our friends are there, and Diren is only 45 kilometers away from Cologne." Platin Tenors Béla Mavrák sang at the Opera of the National Theater in Belgrade and at the Opera in Cologne. He was a member of the National Opera in Weimar, Germany, for two years, and his musical rise and world career began when André Rieu heard him. After recording a CD with a German orchestra, Rieu invited him, in 2004 to Maastricht, the Netherlands, to sing in his orchestra, with which he has traveled the world for more than fifteen years and performs with two other Platin Tenors. The first tour lasted a year and each concert was a spectacle for the performers and the audience. Thus, after almost five years of persuasion, they arrived in Belgrade at the "Stark Arena". "It was fantastic," says Béla. "Thousands of hands clapped, and the audience sang "Far Away" with us. Numerous concerts are planned this year as well, in America and Europe, we should be in "Stark Arena" again in November (2020), but the pandemic postponed it all. But I am an optimist and I always hope for better times. It will be, if there is a concert," as Béla says, "an already well-known repertoire that is always refreshing with new compositions." Zrenjanin Memories Memories from the concert in Zrenjanin are also alive. As he says, every bird returns to its nest. Okay, maybe not every one, but he is, of course, the one who comes back. "The last time I sang in Zrenjanin was at the 'Beer Days', with the Zrenjanin Philharmonic Orchestra two years ago", Béla remembers. "That is my home audience, in front of which I like to sing. Many people, a lot of applause, emotions. Two years earlier, it was also exciting at the New Year's concert with the Zrenjanin Philharmonic. And before that, I think in 1994, there was a power outage at the Toša Jovanović National Theater and it was very, very cold." Communicative, open and cheerful, Béla Mavrák captivates on stage, as well as in walks around the cities of Serbia, Europe, and the world. Meeting with the seller at the "flea market" in Maastricht, ended with the purchase of painting "Exciting Street". Its author is a Russian master. "I like to walk through the center of Zrenjanin or Novi Sad, to meet friends and acquaintances, to drink coffee with them, to remember some ancient times." Béla Mavrák is emotional. "I like to walk around Cologne, I go to an Italian restaurant with my wife, I am glad that she likes Zrenjanin, Mihajlovo, and Novi Sad." He speaks Serbian, Hungarian, German, English, Italian, Spanish and Russian, and sings in more than ten languages. And when he sings, and when he talks, and when he listens to music or interlocutor, he does it with a torrent of energy and emotions. And once again we are both convinced that without emotions there is no song, concert, travel, meeting, or even life. All Our Songs Béla also listens to rock, pop, evergreens. He was delighted when he was a teenager with Pink Floyd. He was at the concerts of the group "Dire Straits", Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, whom he met in person. He was photographed with Anthony Hopkins. The world went crazy for "Macarena", and Béla sang with Antonio and Rafael, "Los del Rio", who launched this song. In 2010, he recorded the album "Un solo en el Aire" with the legends of Cuban music, members of the band "Buena vista social club", which includes compositions from Hollywood movies, Cuban and songs from our region "I'm sick, you're sick", "Little girl", "Only one kiss", "Chardash". Adventures in the Wild "As a child, I wanted to be an archaeologist, to travel and research. I couldn't even imagine that somewhere on the planet people live like in prehistory. I have been to West Papua New Guinea three times. Two cannibal tribes also live there. I was the first white man to visit them. Unthinkable, I slept on a tree, as the natives do. They didn’t eat me, they laughed and sang with me. I also love animals, domestic and wild, which I met in Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, Togo, Congo. I also met gorillas. I was also in Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia, filming tribes in the jungle" - the story of Béla Mavrák's adventures. Teaches Students as well After completing his higher music education in Cologne, he studied with the famous Italian tenor Franco Corelli, in Milan with Gianni Raimondi, in Bologna, as well as the Swedish tenor Nikolai Gede. As he promised them, he now teaches belcante students at academies in Havana, São Paulo, Campinas, El Salvador, Lima (where he was named an honorary professor), Tokyo, Cologne, and Timisoara. In addition to music, he is also interested in fashion - he has a special style of clothing, and he is the owner of an unusual collection of shoes. "I also enjoy photographing unusual landscapes."