https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3645602135549013
This performance is lovingly dedicated to my father, Apatini Gyula, and to my dearest mother, Maria Apatini.
As my father sings the beautiful and timeless song “Autumn Leaves,” composed by Joseph Kosma, a Hungarian-born composer who later lived in France, this music carries a meaning that reaches far beyond the melody itself.
For me, this song is not only about autumn leaves, memory, and the passing seasons of life. It is about family. It is about survival. It is about courage. It is about love strong enough to carry a family through fear, uncertainty, and into a new life.
As described in the book I am working on, my life story and my invention journey did not begin only with an idea. It began with memory. It began with history. It began in Hungary in 1956, when our family escaped during the Hungarian Revolution.
We crossed from Hungary into Austria, leaving behind danger, fear, and the world we had known. But the journey did not end there. From Austria, we continued by bus through the Alps, traveling toward beautiful Rome, Italy.
That part of the journey remains one of the most powerful images of my childhood. It felt as if I had come out of a black-and-white world and suddenly entered the color of life all around me almost like the unforgettable moment in The Wizard of Oz, when the screen changes from black and white into brilliant color.
After the darkness, there was light.
After fear, there was beauty.
After escape, there was the beginning of possibility.
And through all of it, my dearest mother, Maria Apatini, helped keep our family together. Her courage, love, and determination were the invisible strength holding us as we crossed borders, mountains, and uncertainty. My father, Apatini Gyula, carried his own spirit, dignity, and musical soul with him — a soul that I now hear again in this performance.
In this recording, when my father sings “Autumn Leaves,” I hear more than a song. I hear memory. I hear Hungary. I hear Austria. I hear the Alps. I hear Rome. I hear the sound of a family moving from survival toward life.
Inside this piece, I also added my own music workstation interpretation to the piano accompaniment originally provided by my father’s amazing pianist at the time, the one and only Zorandy Zoltan.
My dear father, in his stage productions, always introduced him as “Double Z” — for Zorandy Zoltan — and that name fit him perfectly. He was not only a pianist, but a true musical mind, a band leader, and one of the finest musicians I have ever personally known.
His ears were so perfect that he could sit you down at any properly tuned piano, ask you to play your composition, and then write out the musical notation simply by listening. I experienced this myself with my own musical compositions. He would take a pad and musically write out the notes almost like a court stenographer taking down every word — except in his case, he was capturing music.
That kind of gift is rare. Very rare.
So in this version of “Autumn Leaves,” my own music workstation interpretation is added with deep respect to the original piano accompaniment played by Zorandy Zoltan, “Double Z.” My contribution is not meant to replace what he did, but to honor it, expand it, and place my own emotional and musical feeling beside my father’s voice and Zoltan’s musicianship.
The voice, the piano, and my music workstation interpretation become a conversation between generations and musicians. My father sings the melody. Zorandy Zoltan’s piano accompaniment carries the elegance and musical foundation. My added interpretation responds with love, memory, and gratitude. And behind all of it is the story of our family — a story of escape, courage, music, invention, and life continuing forward.
This dedication is for my father, Apatini Gyula, whose voice gives life to this beautiful song.
It is for my dearest mother, Maria Apatini, whose strength helped keep our family together as we crossed from Hungary into Austria, then through the Alps by bus toward beautiful Rome, Italy.
It is also in honor of Zorandy Zoltan, “Double Z,” a remarkable musician, pianist, and band leader whose musical ear and talent remain unforgettable to me.
And it is part of the larger story I am completing in my book the story of how memory, family, music, survival, imagination, and invention all became connected in my life’s journey.
As the autumn leaves fall, the memories return.
But love remains.
Family remains.
Music remains.
And from the black and white of the past, the color of life still shines forward.