Babra

Budapest-based Babra performs captivating almost-forgotten traditional music of South Slavic minorities along the Danube from a fresh perspective, with tamburitza, accordion, clarinet, percussion and vocals.

Performing captivating South Slavic and Balkan music, Babra was formed in Budapest in 2014, at the intersection of Western and Eastern Europe, a long-time melting pot of still-living rural traditions and innovative urban cultures. The dynamic and varied music of the South Slavs who centuries ago resettled along the banks of the Danube, features the traditional plucked string instruments called tamburitza along with beautiful polyphonic singing. Babra performs this music as well as Macedonian and Serbian styles, incorporating clarinet, saxophone, accordion, and traditional percussion into their instrumentation. 

Babra takes the almost-forgotten diverse musical styles as inspiration for their own unique sound, embodying this rich musical heritage with youthful energy. Their first album was released in 2019, earning a spot in the top ten of the WMCE. They also had the opportunity to play at the Womex2020 showcase in MÜPA.

“From the banks of the Danube we came, tamburitzas in hand; from a tiny, hidden musical paradise of archaic, polyphonic singing style, the unity of the tamburitza and the harmony of the clarinet and the accordion, whose rolling melodies taught us what it’s like when one sound freezes time, while another joyfully gives birth to light.”

CONTACT: bandbabra@gmail.com // Réti Benedek +36 30 550 4503 // Varga Veronika: +36309855626

Márványos Tambura Band

The unique Hungarian instrument, tarogato takes centre stage at our concerts, accompanied by skillful solos, spirited cimbalom and the rich sound of tamburas. We play gems of the Hungarian folk tradition and popular bell-époque melodies rearranged for these instruments. Our music evokes the experience of both urban and country folk: their lives, loves, happiness, hope and bursts of joy captured in the lavish tunes. A regular guest at the prestigious MUPA – Palace of Arts, the band also represented Hungary in Montenegro, invited by public broadcaster RTV, and still plays regularly at weddings, festivals and village feasts.

CONTACT: tamburamarvanyos@gmail.com / +36 70 615 4953

Aranyalma páros

With our instruments and songs we recall the times when people still understood the language of birds, could taste the sunshine in a brunch of grape, knew the order of feasts, could cry and rejoice together and could recover by the power of music. We play music taken from the animating source of Hungarian folk tradition and following the noted days of the year to children and adults. We sing about God, love, wine, valour, Hungarian homeland, human fate, death and resurrection. Our performances and dance-houses reflect the recent and distant past of musical culture and the thinking of eastern nations. We ask for help from our tales, our folk dance treasure and from silence as well.

CONTACT: aranyalmazene@gmail.com

Bajkó

Ensemble Bajkó was founded in the spring of 2013, in Budapest, by three hearty, music lover youngsters from the countryside. The membership of the group was burnished constantly. Balázs Horváth joined the ensemble in 2016, Csaba Weingart in 2017. The most important cohesive force of the formation was friendship and the mutual demand for achieving musical excellence. Folk music is a dominant part of their lives. For them, collective music making is of most importance moreover, they strive to keep the treasures of folk music from the Carpathian Basin in their original form.

CONTACT: bajkozenekar@gmail.com // +36 30 569 39 38

Török Tilla

The multi-instrumentalist Török Tilla and her band are frequent guest performers at folk and world music festivals overseas and also in Asia. They form an unique musical unity that interfuses Hungarian folk elements and the music of ancient steppe people.

CONTACT: toroktillaofficial@gmail.com / +36 70 320 0976

Magos Folk Band

The Magos Folk Band from Budapest is a band playing authentic Hungarian folk music, first of all tunes from Transylvania (Kalotaszeg, Mezőség, Székelyföld) and present day Hungary (Szatmár, Dunántúl). It was founded in March 2008, the recent line-up, however, was formed in the summer of 2017.

The members of the band are:
ENYEDI Ágnes, Young Master of Folk Arts, Junior Prima Award – voice
SOÓS Csaba, Young Master of Folk Arts – violin
KOVÁCS Márton, Junior Prima Award – violin
ÉRI Márton – violas
ENYEDI Tamás – cimbalom/Hungarian dulcimer
PRIHODA István – double bass, cello
SALAMON Soma, Young Master of Folk Arts, Junior Prima Award – accordion, flutes

Our aim is to study and convey the traditions of folk music while preserving the original tone. Some of us work as teachers at several music schools.
Authentically performed folk music compilations can be heard at our performances, where the influence of the musicians and singers living in the actual region/village can also be observed.
We often take part in field work in Transylvania, and aim at including the acquired musical experiences in our music, then acquaint the listeners with the traditions of the given region.
Apart from accompanying dance ensembles we regularly organize concerts and dance house events both inland and abroad.
In 2011 we won FolkBEATS – an authentic folk-and world music talent show. Thanks to this success we participated in a 5-week 26-concert North-American tour in 2012, where we held concerts and dance houses for Hungarian communities in the US and Canada. In 2014 we got into the semifinals of the famous talent show ’Felszállott a Páva’, where we had the opportunity to perform in television programmes. In 2017 we managed to obtain the ’Halmos Béla’ grant, which enabled us to make our CD titled ’Forgatós’(Authentic Hungarian Folk Music from the river Sajó area to Székelyföld).
Our compilation ’Magosan….’ was awarded the ’Nagy Páva’ label in a competition launched by the Hungarian Heritage House in 2018.
We consider Csiszár Aladár, the lead violinist from Magyarpéterlaka to be one of our greatest masters, thus no wonder that there is no Magos concert without music from Péterlaka.

About the ‘Forgatós’

During the recent years we have devoted our attention to understanding, acquisition and
stylistically appropriate interpretation of music related to diverse regions of Székelyföld, as well as the villages along the rivers Sajó and Maros. We have compiled several line-ups that present the unique beauty of folk music belonging to these rural areas.
We  take our audience on a journey starting from the river Sajó area through Székely-Mezőség and Felső-Maros area to Udvarhelyszék and the area of the river Nyárád hoping that by the end of this ’roaming’ everybody will feel like dancing a ’Forgatós’.

CONTACT: enyeditom@gmail.com / +36 30 437 7540

Dalinda

The common musical language of Dalinda is based on the traditions of authentic Hungarian folk-songs. The members of Dalinda studied at the folk-song branch of Franz Liszt Academy of Music and began to work together on a lot of authentic and world music productions. In the recent years, they shaped their program with collective efforts to show the polyphonic modern sound beside the authentic, harmonic folk songs.

CONTACT: dalindamusic@gmail.com / +36 30 246 2838