Emőke Solymosi-Tari graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and began her career as a music journalist. For a long time, she published in the leading daily press (Esti Hírlap, Népszabadság) but specialised in trade journals and magazines. She wrote for Muzsika, Zene Zene Tánc, Operaélet, Mai Magyar Kultúra, Hangszer és Zene, and most frequently for the music education journal Parlando. She has also been a sought-after contributor to Gramophone and has written extensively for the Hungarian Music Quarterly, which covers Hungarian music in foreign languages. It is in these forums that we can best appreciate that while Emőke Solymosi-Tari is noted as a Lajtha researcher in her main academic field, her attention to many other things is often not even casual.
Some of her writings in the trade journals have directly or indirectly concerned the subject of music education. This is because, even before her studies in musicology, Emőke Solymosi-Tari graduated from the Teacher Training Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music specializing in piano instruction. There she studied under Erzsébet Tusa and Edit Hambalkó. There, in Imre Földes' music history classes, she encountered a charismatic teacher whose ideal was not only to teach his profession, but also to educate his students, an ideal that she herself later embraced, as recognized by his teacher.
Interviews published in periodicals spotlight great artists (Yehudi Menuhin, Tamás Vásáry, György Sebők, István Lantos, Vilmos Szabadi, Gergely Járdányi, Dénes Gulyás, Lajos Miller), composers (Zsolt Durkó), music teachers (Lívia Rév, Erzsébet Tusa, Mária Eckhardt, László Dobszay, László Nemes, Kálmán Záborszky, Gábor Jelinek) – the list is by no means complete. In these periodicals, Emőke Solymosi-Tari reports on current events and achievements in international music education (EPTA) and music education in Hungary (Psalmus Humanus, Musica Futura).
At the Musicology Department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, she was taught by the most important representatives of Hungarian musicology: György Kroó, József Ujfalussy, László Somfai, László Dobszay, Katalin Komlós, János Kárpáti, Tibor Tallián, Sándor Kovács, András Batta and András Szőllősy, these names all guarantee high quality education. She graduated as a teacher of music literature in 1989 and as a musicologist in 2002.
She soon found the central theme of her work as a music historian: the work of László Lajtha (1892-1963) as a composer. She complemented her research of the oeuvre with study trips to Paris and London. Her first book on the subject was published in 2007 under the title …magam titkos szobája… (lit. ...My Secret Room...) by Hagyományok Háza (Hungarian Heritage House). The book examines the genesis of Lajtha's comic opera A kék kalap (lit. The Blue Hat), its difficulties following the composer's death, the aesthetics of the work, its connections to music history, its musical manuscript, and presents the composer's most ambitious work. According to the editor, József Ujfalussy: "Emőke Solymosi-Tari’s study is straightforward and logical (...) It provides a broad historical overview of the centuries-old lineage, genre affinities and characters of what was ultimately called a comic opera. She is well supported by her highly developed musical sensibility and her training in philological research when she attempts to present how the inner connections work on stage."
The continuous collection and organisation of Lajtha memorabilia have resulted in the publication of a documentary volume of exceptional value entitled Két világ közt, Beszélgetések Lajtha Lászlóról (lit. Between Two Worlds: Conversations About László Lajtha). Lajtha’s portrait is depicted by colleagues, students, performers and his devoted descendants via already published reflections and in some cases via radio recordings not yet published in print. Melinda Berlász, a musicologist specialised in Lajtha's era, describes the significance of the volume as follows: “The Lajtha-memoires, that were published as a natural continuation of the long-lasting Hungarian tradition of musical memoires and the collections of Bartók, Kodály and Weiner, are significant from a music history perspective. The interview volume in its narrower context – as the first collection based on the oral recordings of László Lajtha's multifaceted and diverse oeuvre – enriches the Lajtha-literature with new perspectives and new insights. Its content is so broad that it covers almost all the main areas of his multifaceted creative personality (...) The collector and publisher of the memoirs chose her contributors with due knowledge and as a result of her two decades of work, she published a collection that is detailed and full of knowledge. The editor's stylistic fastidiousness in transforming the oral communications into a literary text must be highly appreciated." (Magyar Zene, May 2011)
Zsuzsanna Erdélyi’a diary on Lajtha, A kockás füzet (lit. The Checkered Notebook) was also published by Hungarian Heritage House, close to Between Two Worlds. The editing, notes and afterword of this volume are the work of Emőke Solymosi-Tari, again a great example of a sovereign expertise in terms of both musicological knowledge and editorial thoroughness. This publication is reviewed by Melinda Berlász in a dedicated essay in the above-mentioned issue of Magyar Zene: "The Checkered Notebook can be considered an indispensable source publication on Lajtha literature and the history of Hungarian folk music research after World War II. (...) Emőke Solymosi-Tari, a Lajtha researcher who edited the text and provided expert notes, played a significant role in the creation of this noteworthy publication. Without her initiative, collaboration, and scholarly contributions (notes, interpretations, additions, index of Lajtha's works), the publication would not have met the requirements of a scholarly publication. Her evaluative afterword serves as an important reference point for researchers and interested readers."
On the "periphery" of Lajtha research, but also organically fitting this framework, the composer's friend László Fábián published his works on Lajtha together with his correspondence with Lajtha and his wife in Ős és utód nélkül (lit. Without Ancestors and Descendants), that was published in 2014 as a joint publication of Gondolat Kiadó and Országos Széchényi Könyvtár (National Széchenyi Library).
The books and studies are accompanied by exhibitions to broaden the knowledge of Lajtha among the wider audience. In 2012 and 2013, following a comprehensive exhibition focusing on composer Lajtha at the Művészetek Palotája (MÜPA, Palace of Arts), which was later expanded, in 2015, the Hungarian Heritage House presented A nagy mogul (The Great Mogul), an exhibition presenting valuable memorabilia and documents from his time as a soldier in World War I., thus sketching a portrait of László Lajtha as a person.
The first Lajtha catalogue was published by Emőke Solymosi-Tari in 1992, the year of the composer's centenary, and its extended version by Editio Musica Budapest in 2008, as well as the text of several CD booklets of Lajtha's works under both the Hungaroton and Naxos labels.
Among the many studies of Lajtha by Emőke Solymosi-Tari, we should highlight a few: A Szeretet és Szépség szigete – Adalékok Lajtha László művészetének XVII-XVIII. századi inspirációjához (lit. The Island of Love and Beauty – Contributions to the Art of László Lajtha’s 17th-18th Century Inspiration) (Magyar Zene 2003/3); „Bartók (…) mindig latinnak nevezett" – Bartók Béla hatása Lajtha László életútjára és esztétikájára (“Bartók Always Called Me Latin”: The Influence of Béla Bartók on László Lajtha's Life and Art) (Parlando 2006/6); Filmzeneírás – szabadon: Höllering és Lajtha (Film Music Writing – Freely: Höllering and Lajtha) (Magyar Zene 2010/1). Emőke Solymosi-Tari’s analytical attention is not limited to Lajtha. Her French-language study of contemporary music published in Switzerland: László Dubrovay: un novateur traditionaliste. Inspirations folkloriques dans les oeuvres de l'élève hongrois de Stockhausen (Dissonance – revue musicale suisse pour la recherche et la création, 129), is worthy of special mention. Emőke Solymosi-Tari began her teaching career at a secondary school, now she teaches at the Szent István Király Zeneművészeti Szakgimnázium (King St. Stephen's Secondary School of Music) and works as an assistant profession at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. For two years, she lectured on music history at the Doctoral School of the Moholy-Nagy University of the Arts, and now Imre Földes shares his decades-long teaching post with her at the József Attila Free University of the TIT.
We must highlight the ground-breaking, unique programmes of the Zugló Philharmonic Orchestra, based on the ideas and under the leadership of Emőke Solymosi-Tari. Since 1997, Pastorale concerts have been attracting families (especially children aged 7 to 14 and their parents and grandparents) to the Zuglói Zeneház (Zugló Music Hall), who are captivated by the high quality of live music, dance, film and the clear and articulate presentation of artistic music by Emőke Solymosi-Tari. And since 2011, Zugló Philharmonic has been inviting 5–10-year-olds in one half of the year and 10–18-year-olds in the other, to the educational and entertaining programmes, which are also made more spectacular with dance and projection, and are also edited and presented by Emőke Solymosi-Tari.
Emőke Solymosi-Tari was awarded the Lajtha László Award in 2002, the Zugló Public Culture Prize in 2005, the Szabolcsi Bence Award in 2012, and the Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 2013. Since 2014 she has been a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and head of the Department of Art Theory. She is a member of the Board of the Hungarian Music Council, the Board of the Society of Music Teachers, the Board of Trustees of the Lajtha László Foundation, and a founding member of the Society for Musicology and Music Criticism. For a time, she was President of the Hungarian Organisation of Jeunesses Musicales (JM Hungary) and was also involved in the management of the Music Critics Section of the National Association of Hungarian Journalists.
[2016]