Artist Info: Bela Lakatos

At approximately 750.000, Hungary has one of the world`s largest Roma populations. It is a land with a rich tradition in classical music (Bartok, Kodaly, Liszt). Today in Hungary, there are two distinct worlds of Gypsy music: rural folk (performed almost exclusively for the Gypsy community) and `restaurant music` (performed primarily for tourists). In fact, most tourists in Hunagry will only see `restaurant music`. Eating establishments in Budapest and throughout Hungary regularly have small Gypsy orchestras consisting of several fiddlers [read more...]