Budapest Klezmer Band

Conjunto

There are not many orchestras in Hungary, which operate with such stylistic consistency from the very beginning as the Budapest Klezmer Band.There are even less, who cover such a wide spectrum of other genres, even next to highest quality music albums, constant inland and foreign concerts, such as the Budapest Klezmer Band does — from ballet to musical and from traditional documentary to multinational film.

The Band plays mainly musical transcriptions, which are adapted and scored by the founder‐leader of the orchestra, Ferenc Jávori pianist‐composer, born in Munkachevo, Ukraine. The Budapest Klezmer Band is well known and popular both in Europe and the United States, having given concerts in the Lille Opera, Paris, Amsterdam, Verona, Vienna and Genoa in the first five years of existence. They quickly joined the group of the most beloved European orchestras, next to which their performance in the US have become regular since 1988 — among others in the foyer of Princeton University, Washington, Ball room of the Beverly Hilton and Birmingham, Alabama.

In the recent years the orchestra has achieved great success in Helsinki, Zürich, Bolzano, Barcelona, Rome, Stockholm, Munich, Bratislava, and several times in London.They are the illustrious representatives of traditional Jewish music, but at the same time the ambassadors of Hungarian culture as well. Their international prestige and success is Hungary’s fame too. The Budapest Klezmer Band has ‐stepping out from its narrower music environment‐ has proven its versatility many times. For years now, the orchestra is playing the world famous musical, Fiddler on the Roof in its own adaptation in the Madách Theater, for the request of the director Imre Kerényi.

The orchestra has also taken part in a number of other successful productions, out of which the world’s very first klezmer musical, written by Ferenc Jávori, the Bridal Dance stands out. Its success is proven by the more than 150 performances in two years.
In January 2000 the Budapest Klezmer Band was awarded the Zoltán Kodály Prize for the cultivation and propagation of Jewish music, by the board of trustees of the Pro Culture Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In August 2003 the orchestra was also awarded the Artisjus Prize.

Members:
Ferenc Jávori (Founder, band leader, composer and arranger) — piano, vocal
Bence Gazda — violin, vocal
István Kohán — clarinet, bass clarinet
Anna Nagy — accordion
Gábor Tamás — trombone, vocal
Gábor Kiss — double‐bass
Balázs Végh – drums, percussion