Typed letter signed in purple ink to Mr. B.A. Godward of the Limelight Society in Nottingham

1 page. Folio (ca. 296 x 209 mm). Dated Budapest, November 20, 1989. In English. With original typed envelope with sender's and recipient's address typed to address panel.

Balassa is honored that the Limelight Society has asked him to participate in an auction - most likely the [Charlie] Chaplin Festival Auction in November 1989, for which the society solicited donations from noted artists and scientists. Balassa, for his part, seems to have donated a score of his Three Fantasies for Orchestra.

"... In my whole childhood I had been under the spell of Chaplin's art. In return now, I send a score of my Three Fantasies for Orchestra and a record of it as a present for the buyer, to the Limelight Society's auction. I wish great success of the Festival... "

Slightly worn; creased at folds. Balassa, a Hungarian composer, "was brought up in the country until 1951 when he returned to Budapest to work as a factory mechanic. His first experience of art music there made him decide to study at the Budapest Conservatory (1952-6), and after spending four further years teaching himself, he attended the Liszt Academy of Music (1960-65) as a composition pupil of Szervánszky. From 1964 to 1980 he was music director at Hungarian Radio. Awards made to him include the Erkel (1972), Kossuth (1983) and Bartók-Pásztory (1988, 1999) prizes. Also in 1972 his Requiem was voted the most distinguished composition of the year at the International Rostrum of Composers. In 1989 he was created Outstanding Artist of the Hungarian Republic." György Kroó and Melinda Berlász in Grove Music Online.