Formed 40 years ago, Téka Ensemble are an esteemed formation in Hungarian folk music culture and the dance house movement. In fact, they are greater than a simple orchestra, being more akin to a national institution; their name conjures up in the minds of many generations of Hungarians those long summer camps when people learned about all branches of folk culture and when folk music could really be relived as it originally functioned, as an integral part of life. Members of the much-decorated ensemble collected songs from locally-based musicians and studied all the nuts and bolts of music making so that they could present authentic Carpathian Basin folk music to audiences on four continents. In their dance houses, informative series and teaching activities particular emphasis is placed on ensuring that the ancient traditions can live on, or as they put it: “don’t allow the tree to fall, which without roots will be lost forever”. Their latest album, their 27th, which borrows its title from the name of a men’s dance of the Mezőség region, Ritka Magyar, appeared this year. Naturally, they will not only present material from this recording at the anniversary concert, but there will also be references to key episodes in their marvellous 40 years of music making, an essential element of which will be to invite former fellow musicians who have made Téka the band they are today.
Téka Ensemble: Máté Kalász (violin); Beatrix Tárnoki (vocals, cobza); György Lányi (contrabass, bagpipes, cobza); Pál Havasréti (bass, cello, hurdy-gurdy, gardon, drums, zither, vocals)
Guests: László Porteleki, Zoltán Nagy, Zoltán Porteleki, Balázs Vizeli, Kálmán, Balogh, Gábor Eredics, Gergely Koncz, Róbert Kerényi, Balázs Szokolai Dongó, Sándor Csoóri Jr., Péter Éri, Mihály Sipos, Dániel Hamar, Ilona Budai, Éva Fábián, Katalin Szvorák, the Hungarian Hurdy-Gurdy Orchestra and the Hungarian Bagpipes Orchestra
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