Lajos Sárközy Jr. & Band

Later he attended music school and at the age of thirteen he continued his studies in a class for gifted students at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he was taught by Eszter Perényi. As a young violinist, he gained several awards in competitions, including international awards. In 2005, he won an international competition in Poland and in 2006 he won the International Gábor Radics Jazz Violin Competition. Lajos Sárközy Jr became inquinated with Hungarian Romani music in his father’s ensemble and then went on to found his own ensemble, Lajos Sárközy Jr and Band. The members of the ensemble are Lajos Sárközy Jr (first violin), Lajos Sárközy Sr (second violin), Gyula Bóni (viola), Rudolf Sárközy (double bass) and Gyula Csík (cimbalom). For six years, they performed in the oldest restaurant in Budapest, Százéves Étterem (Century Restaurant), where renowned artists came just to hear their music, including members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Gidon Kremer and Nigel Kennedy, as well as many actors, professors and international artists.

The group travelled around the world, performing in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and the USA, among other countries. Their musical partners were world-famous musicians such as Kristóf Baráti and Andreas Ottensamer, and they also performed with the Hungarian Radio Orchestra. The group strives to nurture Hungarian and classical music and to present new shades of music that no Hungarian Romani group has performed before.