Festeres Band

The young musicians in Festeres Band share at least two major life events: attending the same folk music school in district III, Budapest, and falling for the special charm of the folk music of Csángó people in Moldavia, Romania. These melodies and songs come from an isolated Hungarian community, who have preserved archaic layers of folk music diluted elsewhere, while maintaining a freshness and strong bonds to the community’s life. Festeres play and hand over this heritage in its authentic form at concerts, dancehouses, workshops, teaching sessions for kids and adults. They are happy to play at parties, weddings and accompany dance productions with live music.

CONTACT: szabo.marton@festeres.hu / +36 20 551 4165

Dűvő

Looking back to four decades of playing folk music, Dűvő band has been around since the beginnings of the dancehouse movement. They play the music of all the ethnic communities in the Carpathian Basin, and keep on recording and teaching folk music. They are regular guests at the most prominent Hungarian festivals, and have represented the folk heritage of the country on foreign stages on many occasions. Active in the current formation since 2008, the core of the band are the Hrúz brothers, Dénes and Szabolcs, joined by ex-Méta member Albert Mohácsy and Zsolt Nagy, and the young talent Júlia Kubinyi. They bagged the most presitgeous award of the genre, Young Artist of Folk Arts, as early as 1983, and have been voted „Excellent Ensemble” twice since. Further trophies include Imre Madács award given by Nógrád County Municipality, and the Pro-Arte and Pro-Urbe awards received from the City of Salgótarján.

CONTACT: duvo@duvo.hu

Bakator

Bakator aims to keep the treasure of folk music in its true form: as a constant life companion. They fittingly accompany several folk dance troupes in the Eastern region of Hungary – Szivárvány, Szélrózsa, Zemplén, Körös-Körül and Hímes Folk Dance Groups. They regularly perform at concerts and weddings, and have a close connection to Bocskai Folk Dance Group in Hajdúböszörmény.

CONTACT: torokpeterandras@gmail.com / +36 20 463 6004

Bálint Vizeli

Bálint Vizeli graduated as an informatics engineer at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 2018, but on account of his family background, he is profoundly engaged in folk music, which is proved by the fact that he became the winner of the National Folk Violin Competition in Kecskemét, in 2017. He considers helping Hungarian communities abroad of great importance, thus he plays at Hungarian dance houses in Munic and Nurnberg, among other cities, every year. He is a regular musician of the dance houses of the folk music venues in Budapest, like Fonó and Hungarian Heritage House, moreover, for the last two years, he has been running a folk club at a venue named Rácskert in Budapest once a fortnight.

CONTACT: info@folkfest.hu

Helga Debreceni-Kis

In addition to mastering and transmitting authentic folk music, I find it important to explore
all the possibilities given by the citera. I find it very important and consider it my purpose, to convince people that the citera is a very technical instrument, that has its place on stage, at festivals, and that isn’t exclusive to folk music, but can be used in anything, from jazz to classical music through blues! This is what we are trying to achieve with my duo, ZitheRandom. I have participated in several folk music contests where I earned several prizes, Golden Peacock, Golden qualification. I consider being one of the finalists of the Fölszállott a Páva folk music and folk dancing talent show to be my greatest achievement.

CONTACT: debreczenikishelga@gmail.com

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

Zeke Band

A unique voice, or rather, three on the Hungarian folk scene: Zeke Band consists of three male singers. Active since 2017, the group accompany their singing on various instruments: flute, citera, tambura. This allows for inspiring arrangements of folk music tunes and a wide repertoire ready to draw in audiences interested in folk music. Members Ákos Gubinecz, István Hegedűs and Bálint Horváth study at the Liszt Music Academy and are dedicated to inspire listeners and pass on the folk heritage. They have been performing at prestigious venues such as the Music Academy and MUPA – Palace of Arts, and at various cultural events.

CONTACT: gubineczakos@gmail.com

Tindia

Tindia sounds like a girl’s name – sure enough, the band is predominantly female – but actually stands for a perky dance tune. They play the music of Csángó people, a Hungarian minority living in Romania – a unique branch of Hungarian folk music also conned “the heavy metal of folk”. The band formed in 2015, they met while playing in a summer camp, and decided to stick together. All members work with music and some attend the Liszt Music Academy.

CONTACT: tindiazenekar@gmail.com / +36 70 385 0800

Ritka Band

Ritka Band – ritka meaning „rare” – started in September 2017 and has 4 permanent members: Alinka Blumenschein, Petra Ecsedi-Oláh, Boglárka Szilágyi, Borbála Teszáry; current and former students of the Liszt Music Academy. They play and perform authentic Hungarian folk music from carefully selected sources. Apart from dancehouses, they regularly accompany Bihari and Bartók Folk Dance Groups, and increasingly concentrate on their own releases.

CONTACT: ritka.zenekar@gmail.com / +36 20 350 6745

Poklade

The music of Poklade is all about the Balkans: the hum of cicadas, clinking of glass, fire of rakija. Scents, flavours, colours, joy and pain and above all an ancient force that takes you by the hand and carries you away. Their music is really poklade – meaning transformation. The band is made of students of legendary masters – József Versendi Kovács, György Tiszai and István Peti Kovács – and started in 2010 in Mohács. Vivien Gráf lends her soaring voice to the band’s gigs.

CONTACT: poklade@poklade.hu / +3630 585 95 20