Tibor Ág

* Bratislava, April 13, 1928 – † Nagymegyer, August 29, 2013 / folk music researcher, conductor, specialist writer ; ; Original name: Obenau Tibor. He completed his primary and secondary school studies in his hometown, then earned a teaching certificate at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1953, he became one of the leaders of the Népes professional folk art ensemble, and after its dissolution (1955), he participated in the founding and management of the Ifjú Szívek folk dance ensemble, and later (between 1967 and 1976) he worked as an ethnographic specialist for the Csemadok and played an important role in starting the Szőttes Folk Dance Ensemble. He lived in Nagymegyer from the 1970s. From 1977 until his retirement (1988), he was a lecturer at the Municipal Cultural Center in Dunaszerdahely. He was one of the founders and secretary (in 1969) of the Czechoslovak Hungarian Ethnographic Society, which was, however, dissolved during the political reorganization (“normalization”) following the collapse of the Prague Spring. After the change of regime in 1989 (in the spring of 1990), he was elected honorary president of the newly formed Czechoslovak Hungarian Ethnographic Society, and in 1993 he became the head of the Folk Music Working Community of the organization, which changed its name to the Slovak Hungarian Ethnographic Society. An important part of his diverse activities was the collection and arrangement of folk songs. One of the most successful Hungarian folk song collectors, who recorded more than 16,000 folk melodies in the Zobor region, Mátyusföld, Gömör and the Hungarian-populated settlements of Eastern Slovakia. In recent decades, he has also done significant work in the Hungarian choral movement in Slovakia; he was the founder or professional and artistic director of several choirs, and choirmaster. Together with others, he established the Choir of Hungarian Teachers in Czechoslovakia (today the Vass Lajos Choir of Hungarian Teachers in Slovakia). He became a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts in 2012. ; ; His activities have been recognized with numerous honors and awards: ; the Életfa Award of the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Hungary (1995), ; the Márai Sándor Foundation Award for Open Europe (1997), ; Pro Probitate – Award for Integrity (1999), ; Posonium Literary Award Lifetime Achievement Award (2001), ; Ľudovít Štúr Award III. degree (2002), ; Golden Plaque of the Government of the Slovak Republic (2003), ; Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2008), ; Harmony Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013. ; ;  Main works: ; Édesanyám rózfája (Palóc folk songs), 1979, ; Véteseksek ki szólo szívem (Slovakian Hungarian ballads, with Ferenc Sima), 1979), ; In the footsteps of Kodály (with Károly Mórocz), 1979, ; The music of the Golden Garden. ; Csallóközi folk songs, 1999, ; The sun's rays shone. Eastern Slovak Folk Songs, 1999, ; Let's Make a News Bell. Folk Ballads of the Nitra Region, 2001, ; In the Footsteps of Folk Song Researchers in the Hungarian-Inhabited Regions of Slovakia, 2007, ; The Creator of the Stars, 2009, ; From Here, in Bodrogköz, 2009, ; The Bird of the Sky Does Not Sow, 2010.