Jozsef Karai

Jozsef Karai was born on 8 November 1927 in Budapest (Hungary). He showed musical talent as a schoolboy and received musical education since he was 12 years old. His schooldays fell into the time of World War II and so he could finish school not before 1946. Then he studied at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music under Janos Viski and Ferenc Farkas (composition) and Janos Ferencsik, Andras Korodi and Laszlo Somogyi (conducting). He completed his studies in 1954.
During his time at the Academy Jozsef Karai began to conduct several choirs in Budapest. After his studies he focused on a career as a composer and wrote many works for choir. Over the years he became a renowned composer for choral music and many choirs won prizes with his works at competitions. Jozsef Karai has composed over 100 choral works, many of them are published by Editio Musica Budapest. For his achievements as a choir master and composer Jozsef Karai received the Erkel Prize in 1972 and the SZOT Prize in 1980.
Jozsef Karai died on 7 September 2013 in Budapest (Hungary).

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of "Korus Kodaly emlekere" (Choir in memoriam Kodaly) for female choir by Jozsef Karai. The work sets the poem "Elindult egy ember" by Gabor Garai to music and was composed in 1971, very likely for the festivities of the 5th anniversary of the passing of Zoltan Kodaly sometime in 1972. The manuscript shows the dedication "A Mester szülövarosanak Kecskemetnek" (The Master's hometown Kecskemet).

The work was published by Editio Musica Budapest in 1975 and is still in print.