The Hungarian Cultural Center, New York

in association with Centrum Management

presents

GÁZSA FOLK ENSEMBLE

The Folk Music Band of the Budapest Folk Ensemble from Hungary

“Music and Dances from the Carpathians”

The Gázsa Ensemble is one of Hungary’s most outstanding musical groups, touring the globe throughout the last several years, accompanying the world-famous Budapest Folk Ensemble. They toured the USA in 2000 with the critically acclaimed production of “CSÁRDÁS, The Tango of the East.” Reviewers raved about their performance, offering praises such as “admirable,” “compelling,” “seductive,” “wild,” “pulsating,” “brilliant,” “irresistible,” and “superb.”

Experience folk music and dance treasures of the Carpathian Basin

Tuesday, February 10, 2004 at 8:30 PM

Johnny D’s Restaurant and Music Club

17 Holland St. at Davis Square, Somerville, MA 02144

Admission: $15 [students $10] -- web: www.johnnyds.com

Information / reservation: [617] 776-2004, dinner from 4:30 PM

Reservations recommended

GÁZSA FOLK ENSEMBLE

The Gázsa Band was formed in 1992 by some of the best folk musicians in Hungary who have spent years studying and learning authentic village music from famous masters of folk music, who, in most cases, lived in remote rural areas. The bands takes its name from its leader’s nick-name, István Papp. He was born and raised in Transylvania and has played with many “giants” of Hungarian folk music. A graduate of the Conservatory of Music of Kolozsvár [Cluj in Romanian], Gázsa was influential in starting and providing music for the first Táncház [Community folkdance event] in Kolozsvár while he was a student. This was a significant step, since this folk-revival movement offered the basic impulse to hundreds of young musicians to learn and preserve authentic folk music of the Carpathian Basin.

The Carpathian mountains surround an area of Central Europe, “home” to many ethnic groups, each possessing wonderful folklore, especially in the areas of folk music and dance. Hungarians represent the majority in those areas, but Romanian, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, Ukrainians, Gypsies and others have also preserved their wonderful folk treasures. The most pure and archaic forms of music and dance may be found in Transylvania, now part of Romania. In these areas, Hungarians, Romanians and Gypsies live together in many villages; their unique ethnic culture may be witnessed even today. Although the performers in the Gázsa Ensemble are all Hungarians, they have explored the beauty and depth of all traditional cultures in the Carpathian Basin in great detail. In their performance, they show the music and dance of a variety of ethnic groups and offer a memorable cross-section of the colorful ethnic music and dances of all people living in Central Europe.

The Gázsa Ensemble has accompanied the famous Budapest Ensemble for a decade. Together, they have performed in many countries, including the United States, Canada and Mexico, to critical acclaim. In their 2000 North American tour, The Ensemble was praised by The New York Times as “admirable” and “compelling”; the New York Newsday noted “superb musicians … lively, seductive music”; The Boston Globe praised their music to be “pulsating”; and in the Chicago Sun Times, the group’s fiddlers were called “irresistible” and the musicians “superb.”

On this tour, the Ensemble will consist of six musicians and two dancers. The musicians include two violin players, a violist, a bassist, a cimbalom [Hungarian hammered dulcimer] player and a multi-instrumentalist specializing on the woodwinds, including the clarinet. A professional dancing couple from the Budapest Ensemble, wearing the gorgeous folk costumes of several geographic areas, will enhance the appreciation of the wonderful music.

The Hungarian Cultural Center, NY is supporting the tour of the Ensemble. The Center is dedicated to promoting Hungarian culture and increasing the awareness of the wonderful cultural resources of Hungary to the North American public. The Center is funded by the Hungarian Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

FOR INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS:

CENTRUM MANAGEMENT, 178 Oakdene Ave. Teaneck, NJ. 07666

Tel: 201-836-4869 ~ Fax: 201-836-1590 ~ email: magyar@magyar.org ~

web: www.gazsa.hu