Klara Kokas (1929-2010) was one of the most influential and innovative music pedagogues of the second half of the 20th century. At the prestigious Liszt Academy of Music, she was one of the most talented students of Zoltán Kodály, the Master dedicated his book "In Retrospect" to "Klára Kokas, Looking forward". As a devoted ambassador of the Kodály-concept worldwide, she spent 3 years in the US, and she was one of the firsts to demonstrate the musical transfer effect through her experiments. She held a doctoral degree in psychology. Having taught music at primary, secondary and university level (mainly in the Kodály Music Pedagogy Institute) over decades in Hungary and all over the world, she has developed her own approach of combining music reception with improvisational movement (embodiment) and visual activity. Today we label this holistic approach as Kokas-pedagogy.

Her innovations were years ahead of her time, no matter if we speak about teaching children, the disadvantaged and the disabled, training adults, working with families, writing books and directing films. Her “scarf-waving” concerts and house painting camps have become her trademarks. She was one of the first to set up a foundation at the time of the change of regime in Hungary, which she actively ran until her sudden death in 2010. This foundation is the successor of the original one, bearing Klara’s name and nurturing her legacy.

If you wish to know more about her views on the importance of music education, her dedication to teaching, her respect to children, read her self-interview. Her short autobiography is here.

A non-exhaustive selection of her writings are in this and this chapter and the available publications in English language are under this link.

“We can touch the universal chord, feel it, grasp it, and hang on to it. Thus, we can orient ourselves in hope, trust, respect, humility, honesty, joy and love in representations of masterpieces.”