Arpad Darazs

Who was Arpad Darazs?

Arpad Darazs was a Hungarian-American music educator who was widely known as one of the few in the Western hemisphere as an authority on the Kodály method of choral instruction. Before he gained wide acclaim for his work at the University of South Carolina, he garnered acclaim with the success of the St. Killian's Boychoir of Farmingdale, New York. The boys' choir not only sang on the Sonny Fox show, but also on a Christmas album with Andre Kostelanetz, as well as the with Leonard Bernstein at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the United Nations.

Arpad Darazs graduated from Franz Liszt Conservatory in Budapest and was the conductor of the Hungarian State Ballet Chorus and Orchestra, as well as choirmaster for the Hungarian Radio Network.

While at the University of South Carolina he founded the USC Concert Choir. He also conducted the Columbia Boychoir, as well as the Columbia Barbershop Chorus, and the First Presbyterian Church Choir. Later he was also conductor of the Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1981 he founded the Palmetto Mastersingers, which is an all male chorus that went on to win critical acclaim at competitions in Hungary and Wales.