Biennale of Hungarian Religious Music 2024

Following 2022 and 2024, the Hungarian Sacred Music Biennale (Magyar Egyházzenei Biennálé) will be held for the third time in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) in August 2026. This festival and choir gathering boasts high artistic value, spans the entire Carpathian Basin, and places a special emphasis on Hungarian Christian ecumenism as well as the sacred and communal functions of music. The event aims to shape and stimulate a vibrant network of relationships between contemporary Hungarian sacred music, religious communities, and the general public, while enriching the church music practices and repertoire of the Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin with fresh inspiration.

The Biennale aims to showcase and spotlight Hungarian sacred music works created since the fall of communism (the regime change), and to facilitate networking across the entire Carpathian Basin among creators and performers active in the field of church music—including church choirs, conductors, cantors, music teachers, and composers. This year, 16 choirs have registered from Nitra (Nyitra) to Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda), from Pápa to Pécs, from Vác to Sfântu Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyörgy), and from Debrecen to Marosszék. These choirs will perform the latest Hungarian sacred music compositions in 12 Hungarian churches across Cluj-Napoca. Cluj-Napoca serves as a symbolic space for the coexistence of diverse religious communities: during 25 events held in the city's 12 Hungarian churches, nearly 80 sacred works by around 40 contemporary Hungarian composers will be performed within liturgical settings, workshops, or in concert format.