Trans: Gitana

Traditional Hungarian and Romani music

The group of Romani musicians led by Lajos Sárközy Jr. represents an original meeting point of the musical tradition of the Hungarian Romani people and the highest performance standards derived from classical music training. The group nurtures both Hungarian and classical music, thus presenting new colours never before performed by any Hungarian Romani group.

This duality is embodied in a unique way by Lajos Sárközy Jr. The violin virtuoso was born into a Budapest family of seven generations of musicians, so the violin was practically placed in his cradle. At the age of thirteen, he was accepted into a class for exceptionally gifted students at the renowned Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and he won the Hungarian competition for jazz violinists ‘Gábor Radics’ at the age of fifteen. He was subsequently invited to become the concertmaster of one of Hungary’s most prestigious orchestras, the Hungarian National Philharmonic, where he had the opportunity to work with a Hungarian legend of classical music, Zoltán Kocsis. In 2015, he was elected leader of the Budapest Gypsy Philharmonic Orchestra, after which he embarked on a tour of the USA with Rolling Stones saxophonist Tim Ries. His musical career is unprecedented and opens up new interpretive challenges to both traditional Romani and classical European music.

All of this is reflected in the performances of the Sárközy Band, which, with its spontaneous virtuosity and opulent Pannonian emotions, impresses more and more listeners, including those beyond the borders of its homeland.