Seeking Common Ground through the Arts
May 13, 2017
It all began with a performance at the CEU Open Mic Night on March 23. “We got hooked on performing and were looking for opportunities around campus to make more music. We also wanted to do something to respond to the Lex CEU bill,” explained saxophonist Jake McGrew (MPA ’18). Jake, who is from the United States, is one of five members of Policy Cycle, a musical ensemble that includes guitarist Balazs Dezsenyi (MPA ’18) from Hungary, drummer Lili Fernandez (MPA ’17) from Venezuela, singer Benjamin Jance (Mundus MAPP ’18) from the Philippines, and pianist Theresa Weippert (One-year MAPP ’17) from Germany. In addition to sharing a love of performing music, they are all students at CEU’s School of Public Policy (SPP).
Members of the Policy Cycle, along with other CEU staff and students, organized COMMON GROUND: a concert in, of, and for Budapest to strengthen ties between CEU students and students from other Hungarian universities, and to demonstrate how CEU is an integral part of Hungarian collegiate life. Performers from Andrassy University, Budapest Semester in Mathematics, CEU, Corvinus University, and Semmelweis University took part in the May 10 concert. It was a great success - not just in terms of bringing people together but also as a fundraising event for the Dr. Ambedkar School that offers programs for disenfranchised Roma youth in Hungary. There are plans for a second Common Ground concert in Budapest in March 2018 – and a third one in March 2019. Stay tuned…