Kálmán Balogh and the Gipsy Cimbalom Band's record launch concert

Kálmán Balogh and the Gipsy Cimbalom Band's record launch concert

First launched in 2012, Müpa Budapest's World-Wide festival is now ten years old. This mini-festival promoting the cimbalom and the tárogató uses concerts, exhibitions, video screenings and panel discussions to introduce the audience to the world of these two uniquely Hungarian instruments, the history of their development and their past, along with their present and their possible future. In its festive jubilee year, the world-famous cimbalom player and regular series host Kálmán Balogh will present his latest album with his ensemble the Gipsy Cimbalom Band and singer Branka Básits.

Kálmán Balogh has been an outstanding master of the cimbalom since the 1980s, as demonstrated by his collaborations with his various line-ups (the Gipsy Cimbalom Band, the Cimbalom Trió, Cimbalomduó) and leading Hungarian folk musicians. This year the professor of the Liszt Academy's folk music department and regular host of the World-wide series is the focus of the jubilee festival, along with his musical world. And this is partly because Balogh is timing the presentation of the Gipsy Cimbalom Band's latest album for this special occasion, made even more special by the fact that the last time the band released one of their excellent records (titled Délibáb) was in 2010. It will be a novelty in the history of the band to have the familiar coterie of musicians joined by Branka Básits, who is at home in the worlds of both Hungarian and Balkan folk music, singing on the album and at the concert. The concert will be an opportunity to hear some of Balogh's consistently exquisitely beautiful folk songs and folk music arrangements, naturally presented in his equally unique and varied style. In their case, traditional music, jazz and popular music all go "hand in hand”, which is the key to the band's inimitable and unique soundscape.

cimbalom - Kálmán Balogh

Featuring:
vocals - Branka Básits
wind instruments - Péter Bede
violin - Frankie Látó
trumpet - Ferenc Kovács
guitar - Mihály György
double bass - Csaba Novák

Presented by: Müpa Budapest