anna veronika hargitai
music performance Art acting
Anna Veronika Hargitai
(1994, Pécs)
is a Hungarian multidisciplinary artist,
active within the German and
Hungarian art scenes.
Her professional focus lies on a fusion
of artistic fields like contemporary
music, performance art, poetry and
theatre in a way that they create an
interconnected cluster of a
body of work
reel by Uwe Ernst
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artist vita
Veronika Hargitai has been performing on stage as an actress and singer since the age of nine (National
Theatre Pécs, Bóbita Theatre) and has won various national competitions.
After completing her Liberal Arts studies at ELTE University (Budapest), she obtained a degree in jazz
singing at the Béla Bartók Conservatory (Budapest), where she met and was mentored by the
internationally renowned jazz vocalist Júlia Karosi.
During this time, she also worked as a singer and actress in theaters (Orlai Production Company - Hair,
Gólem Theatre - The Exhibition (A Tárlat) and performed at numerous festivals and venues
(MET, POSZT, MüPa, Pontoon, Lumen, etc.).
In 2019, she was offered the only spot for a singer to study as a Jazz Performing Artist at the Folkwang
Universität der Künste, under the mentorship of Romy Camerun and Karolina Strassmayer. She
graduated with honors in 2024. During her studies, she participated in workshops and lessons with
Danilo Pérez, Judy Niemack, Ambrose Akinmusire, Richard Bona, Dena DeRose, Rachel Robins,
Sabeth Pérez, and others.
In 2021, she won the Solistenpreis for Best Solo Artist at the Domicil Förderpreis competition.
As a musician, Hargitai leads, composes, and arranges for her own projects. Her jazz quartet, Veronika
Hargitai Quartet, released their first EP, Etudes, in May 2023. Her experimental octet, Project Berenice,
will present its debut album, Gorgeous Gorgeous Nothings, featuring only original compositions, in 2025.
She also works extensively as a guest performer and collaborator with small and large ensembles across
various genres and projects. She has performed with FJO Bigband, Monta Tupcijenko's Groß
Ensemble, Thea Soti, Genevieve O'Driscoll, BEKVART, OUD, Alex Morsey, Bence Molnár, László
Kéringer, Marc Brenken, and others.
She is also a lyricist and an active vocal coach and music tutor for children and adults...
photo by Kirsten Becken, 2024
In the 2022/23 academic year she was one of the 24 selected participants of the
Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab led by Marina Abramovic and Billy Zhao.
As part of this project, she performed her solo piece "In my head, it’s a neatly draped room" for 9
consecutive days for 6 hours daily at the Museum Folkwang in Essen(DE).
Among her other performances are :
The 24 hours long, solo long durational performance piece “Die Macht der Zerbrechlichkeit”
(at Liget Gallery in Budapest.)
“ I Will Deliver” a two hours long interactive piece made for the finissage of the exhibition
MATCH:ENDLICHKEIT at the Künstlerhaus Dortmund.
Or the contemporary musical performance piece “Composition/ Hommage á John Cage” which she
performed among the works of John Cage and Nam Jun Paik as part of the exhibition "Back To Future"
curated by René Block at Kunsthalle 44Moen, Denmark.
In 2024 she took part in the reenactment of Henning Christiansen’s iconic Fluxus piece
“Kartoffelopera” at the Museum Schloss Moyland(DE) and at Kunsthalle 44Moen through the
invitation of the Henning Christiansen Foundation and René Block.
As an actress she's been training intensely with London based actress and acting coach Eva Magyar
and has been honing on her skills at various workshops.
Currently, she is working in an international film in Budapest
photo by Kirsten Becken, 2024
MUSIC
photo by Kimberly Jöscke
PROJECT
BERENICE
is a contemporary, jazz-inspired ensemble with various guest
members and Veronika Hargitai and Genevieve O’Driscoll as
permanent members. The arrangements and compositions have a
delicate but distinctive style inspired by jazz, Neue Musik and
alternative pop. The repertoire is focused on refined lyrical pieces
and has an emphasis on musical improvisation and spoken word
parts to expand the musical dimension.
Their first mini album “Gorgeous Gorgeous Nothings” will be
released in 2025 .
‘ HOLY’
first single from
Gorgeous Gorgeous Nothings
Album cover by Alma Mia Hadas
self-recorded and edited in 2020,
scenes from Pina Bausch’s piece “Cafe Müller”
recorded in Essen, 2023
Genevieve O’Driscoll, Jan Helten, Nicklas John,
mixed and mastered by Bence Baranyi
goodbye pork pie head
(mingus, mitchell)
recorded in Essen, 2022 with Max Hagen, Jasper Edeler,
Tim Köhler, Eduardo Lara, Simon Kuhn
ramo de delirios (Guinga)
recorded in Essen, 2023
duo with Eduardo Lara
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PERFORMANCES
photo by Kirsten Becken
long durational performance piece
Museum Folkwang (2023)
curated by Marina Abramovic and Billy Zhao
in my head, it’s a neatly draped room
photo by Martin Vanselow
short video footage by Christian Clarke
" A gentle, musical self-vivisection.
Displaying a mind, maybe my mind, an inner
world, that’s stuck and lost in its illustrious
set up
-Isn’t a fine mind, with the ripest thoughts, the
most delicate prison of them all?
Mixing it up with playing the role of the eternal
“the woman”
as I'm slipping through, in and out
Reflecting on my own reality: fears and
vanities, my artistic persona, and archetypal
roles…clichés
- Isn’t that the everyday experience of being an
artist?
All while singing or performing music, some of
which I create."
This performance was an experiment on projection:
In a space richly covered with “bayreuth-style” theater curtains -
an attempt to be completely present and in touch with all my
thoughts and feelings and then after a repeated inner process,
immersing myself in them and then projecting them with
transparency and presenting them through songs or small acts of
my choice.
In this work I was reflecting on the beautiful velvet-covered
space that is our mind, a comfortable, dangerous, magical,
ferocious but above all lonely place.
Alongside of this, I contemplated roles that I stepped in and out
of, the role of the 'eternal woman' as a construct in artworks
created in the patriarchal society, the myth of the diva, the
hysterical, the obnoxious yet attractive female artist.
All of my actions were completely improvised as the selection
of songs I sang acapella, from jazz standards and Boris Vian
chansons to Hungarian folk songs...
photo by Peter E. Rytz
Die macht der zerbrechlichkeit
/ The Might of Vulnerability /
24-hours performance
Curated by Orsolya Dóczy and Márton Tóth
at Liget Galery (Budapest)
photos by Krisztina Bóka
“ The first poem of Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies repeated for 24 hours, in a performance by Anna Veronika
Hargitai. The Might of Vulnerability as an agnostic credo in the ritualised performance of the poem.
Hargitai interprets Rilke's elegy as an artistic manifesto. Through the key motif of the poem – the "stronger
existence" (stärkeres Dasein) – her performance aims to convey a finer sense of being that lifts us out of our
indifferent and alienating world, reduced to a series of everyday routines and evidences. By chanting the poem as a
mantra, Hargitai becomes a mediator of the transcendence inherent in Rilke's poetry for the audience. The visitors
can get closer to the dimensions of their own sensibility by becoming part of the performance. The performance is
not an act of escapism, but it invites us to experience the higher sphere of our being, the celebration of the moment
and our own fallibility.
The cities, streets, and landscapes projected during the performance are metaphors of constantly being on the
road. The stream of still and moving images prompts the participant to perceive the surrounding world and
encourages the reception of nuances in the everyday, from beauty to ugliness.”
curatorial text by Orsolya Dóczy and Márton Tóth
video
excerpts
i will deliver
Solo performance at the finissage of the
exhibition match:endlichkeit
Künstlerhaus Dortmund 2024
curated by Dr. Pia Wojtys
photos by Marie Laforge
IN A NUTSHELL :
this performance invites
the audience members to
immerse a glass into the
wine, put it on the table
and I will deliver their
empathy to those who
caused them pain as I
deliver the wine glass to the
other room,
as I deliver the ritual,
as I deliver .
To create a performance with relevance to the exhibition
but also to my current artistic interest there were three
aspects that inspired the performance.
The first one was the perception of memories and
reminiscence, tradition the futility and universality of it, the
second was Anna-Maria Bogner's concept of putting the
artwork in the context of the public and let the artist
withhold oneself from their work, not to use art as a mean
of self expression but providing the tool for the viewer. And
lastly the perception of space.
The core of the performance comes from a ritual of the
jewish religious tradition. In Europe, around the 15th
century, rabbi-philosopher Isaac Abrabanel incorporated
an act of empathy into the rituals of the Seder night. The
act happens during the course of the second part of the
dinner “ I will deliver" (…you out of the land of Egypt),
(there are four parts for the four glasses of wine connected
to the four " I will ..." verses of the Exodus) where during
the enumeration of the ten plagues,
at the mention of each plague the community takes a drop
from their wine glasses with their fingertips and drip it to a
broken plate, as an act of solidarity with the losses of the
Egyptians.
Since " one cannot be completely joyous
when some of God's creatures have to
suffer"
This ritual act, a symbol of humanity, to
acknowledge and empathize even with the
pain of those that don't wish us well - is
something I find beautifully human and
eternally relevant.
It is also important to note that as the
performance develops, it deters from the
jewish ritual and gets a new meaning.
composition /
hommage a
john cage
performance piece at
Kunsthalle 44 Moen, Denmark (2024)
in the exhibition ‘Back to Future’ curated by René Block
photos and video by Thomas Gunnar Bagge
short
video performances
recorded by Konstantin Pütz
Trotzübung no. 1
PARCAE
Trotzübung no.2 / Intro selftape
Trotzübung no. 3
photo by Krisztina Bóka
ACTING
Height : 160cm
Eyes: blue/green
Hair: dark brown, long
Age range: 19-30
Skills: singing (professional jazz/musical/pop/neue music)
piano playing, horse riding, dancing (contemporary and latin),
yoga
Languages: Hungarian (native),
English/German (fluent) French (C1),
Ivrit/ modern Hebrew (basic)
Photos by Uwe Ernst
GALLERY
Photos by Krisztina Bóka
2023
Photos by
Kirsten Becken
2024
TEACHING
Nursery-jazz workshops for children aged 3-5 and 6-8 (small group setting)
I warmly welcome children aged 3-8 to my music workshops, where we explore jazz music to foster both their musical and
emotional development. As a jazz vocalist and music educator with years of teaching experience, I believe jazz is a wonderful
tool for helping children embrace complex rhythms and sounds from an early age. This playful approach not only enhances
their sense of rhythm but also nurtures their musical and creative abilities. The free and improvisational nature of jazz
encourages creative thinking, boosts self-confidence, and offers young children a powerful outlet to explore and express their
emotions.
In these workshops, children will engage with music through singing, movement, clapping, and other interactive activities.
Special attention will be given to developing proper vocal techniques, musical ear, and intonation, which I incorporate based on
my training and professional experience.
I also incorporate elements of the Kokas Method and László Sáry’s practices, both of which focus on enhancing musical
perception and expression. Each session will be tailored to the children’s age, individual needs, and abilities, ensuring a fun and
creative environment in small groups. My goal is to use music and these activities to support and nurture their cognitive and
emotional development from an early age.
Vocal coaching / Jazz-singing lessons
I offer one-on-one vocal training and jazz singing lessons at all levels for
children (aged 8 and above) and adults, with a focus on advanced
speech-like vocal techniques, incorporating elements of classical vocal
training. These lessons are tailored to jazz, musical theater, and all
popular music styles, providing a well-rounded approach to vocal
development.
In addition to technical training, students will have the opportunity to
explore improvisation, study a wide range of styles and refine their
interpretation, pronunciation, and songwriting skills. I also provide
coaching for entry exams and auditions, helping students prepare for
competitions or academic applications. Each lesson is personalized to the
individual, balancing technical mastery with creative expression, ensuring
students refine their voice and performance skills to their fullest potential.
catch
me
Socials / Instagram
Phone
(0036)703284871
annaveronika.h@gmail.com
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