The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York is extremely pleased to announce that Tompa Gábor, a prominent member of the European theatre scene, and director of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, Romania, has been awarded the title of "Ambassador of Hungarian Culture". The award will be presented by H.E. István Hiller, Hungarian Minister of Education and Culture, on January 24, at the Carnegie Hall in New York City, opening the Budapest Festival Orchestra concert series, part of the Extremely Hungary festival 2009.
The Hungarian Minister of Education and Culture honors every year a handful of accomplished and celebrated artists from different fields of art: music, theatre, literature, etc. with the title of 'Ambassador of Hungarian Culture'. The award aims to celebrate people who have already contributed to the promotion of Hungarian Culture abroad and who will, in the future, represent the diversity and complexity of Hungary's cultural heritage around the world.
Working as professional theatre director since 1981, Tompa Gábor has directed more than 60 productions worldwide including plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov, Beckett, Bulgokhov, Camus and Ionesco. In 1985 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj, Romania, a position he has held up to the present time. He served as Head of Directing at the Theatre Academy in Tirgu Mures, Romania and has been a guest teacher at many universities worldwide. He currently serves as head of the MFA directing program at University of California San Diego. Tompa Gabor is the recipient of many awards (four times Best Director of the Year in Romania , Best Foreign Performance of the Year in England etc.) and has received widespread recognition in Europe for his physically adventurous and conceptually audacious productions of classic plays. Mr. Tompa is also the author of several volumes of poetry and essays on the theatre.
SAT, January 24
Awards Ceremony at CARNEGIE HALL
57th Street & 7th Avenue, NYC