The flute quartet was formed in 2005 from students of the Teacher Training Institute of the Ferenc Liszt University of Music. The quartet is not a permanent ensemble: their main aim is to provide high standard entertainment. They most often play Mozart’s flute quartets, but their repertoire also includes works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and 20th century Hungarian composers. Besides chamber music the members of the quartet play in orchestras and teach.

Last year the group celebrated its 25th anniversary.
They learn their music from archive recordings and their own collecting. The collecting trips that they still make have taken them throughout the Hungarian-speaking territories, from Moldova to Somogy. They use them to carefully observe not only the distinctive performing styles but also the internal laws of the music and dance. As a representative of the Hungarian folk movement they make regular concert appearances in America, as well as in Istanbul, France and Germany.

The group formed in the spring of 2006 plays mainly their own numbers inspired by Balkan and Hungarian folk music, with youthful enthusiasm and innovative orchestration. Their album TransBalkan Express features the cimbalom, an instrument that has become closely associated with Hungarian music. Thanks to its rhythm and the opportunities it offers for improvisation, it fits perfectly into the world of Balkan and Hungarian music. The other leading instrument is the accordion, one of the most popular instruments in the Balkans. It is the harmony of these two instruments blended with other typical Balkan accompanying instruments that creates the sound of the CimbaliBand.
Their repertoire includes the finest pearls of Balkan and Hungarian cimbalom and accordion music. Most of their melodies come from folk music originating in the territories of Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia. The instruments include the violin, tambura, tambura-viola, double bass, derebuka, and voice.

The Etnofon Music Company was formed in 1994 at the initiative of Ferenc Kiss who had previously been a key figure in the Vízöntő and Kolinda, both groups well known abroad too. With virtuoso fellow musicians he created a striking, autonomous musical style. All his longer compositions are based on traditional Hungarian folklore motifs. The messages of an elementary, more archaic way of life can be felt in their music, while it also faithfully reflects the more complex experiences and emotions of modern man. The expert use of traditional playing and ornamentation techniques for acoustic folk instruments and the meditative-type improvisations give their songs a unique and slightly philosophical flavour. The archaic texts are embedded into a written context, giving them whole new meanings. Their performances are characterised by dynamic rhythm, modern message and sound and a high theatrical standard.

The group was formed in 1995 in Szentendre. Partly following family traditions and partly because of their personal attraction to Southern Slav folk music, they set themselves the goal of cultivating this rich and especially valuable tradition.
“The newborn was christened Söndörgő, the godfather was the Vujicsics Ensemble. The boys learnt everything, they looked around in the world, they turned towards those who had sent them out, or to the original homeland from where they had been driven out, they refreshed the fire and fanned the flames even higher.” Emil Petrovics

When it was formed in 1952 the Rajkó Orchestra set itself the goal of preserving, cultivating and popularising the centuries-old traditions of Gypsy music. More than 50 years have passed since then, during which the orchestra has given guest performances in more than 100 countries and created productions unique in the genre. Their repertoire includes Gypsy music, Hungarian folk music, classical pieces, jazz hits and evergreen melodies.

Arrangements of Moldavian folk music
The Fakutya Group formed in 2000 plays in a mixed formation introduced by the dance house tradition in Hungary that is more enjoyable for modern ears but at the same time also refers back to a more archaic instrumental formation: the duo of flute and drum is complemented with the sound of the kobza. Their repertoire is drawn mainly from the Hungarian (csángó) folk music of Moldavia, but the group cannot be described as a traditionalising ensemble. They like to follow their own feelings in interpreting the melodies and they also regard feedback from audiences as very important.

The group was formed in 2008, composed of folk and jazz musicians. They combine Hungarian folk music and jazz, pursuing the path taken by Bartók. Their aim is to develop, through years of work, a modern improvisative style expressed in the Hungarian musical idiom.
Out of the trio of folk music, jazz and Bartók, folk music is the Hungarian musical idiom, jazz is contemporary improvisative music and Bartók is the connection between the old and the modern, between the Hungarian and the European. They would like to connect the two genres with the same respect, humility and taste as Bartók. Their present music is the first stage on this long journey, the encounter, the discovery of each other’s genre, getting to know each other, putting forward ideas. Their music is fresh, inventive, life-embracing. It is easy to listen to, foot-tapping music but always of a high standard. Behind the pleasant melodiousness lie deeper musical thoughts, so not only those in search of entertainment but also connoisseurs also find much to interest them in the repertoire.

Little nothing songs about loves, happy and unhappy brides, separation and letting go, friendship, love, preordained fates…
The concert presents folk songs and ballads in a new music guise. They preserve the secrets of the traditional folk culture of the past, but decoding them and getting to know them also gives pleasure to audiences of today. The listener is impressed not only by the beauty of the melodies and the eternal validity of the texts, but also by the customs, beliefs and traditions that survive in them.