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Gypsy Music Promises Rich Fare

Part of the Abu Dhabi Classics, this Saturday night concert is quite a surprising twist. Artistic director Till Janczukowicz explained, the eight-month long season is not just about classical music, but everything classy and classical in music.

“As for Roby Lakatos, he is one of the classical gypsy musicians,”
said Janczukowicz.

Born in Hungary in 1965 into a legendary family of gypsy violinists, the descendent of Janos Bihari, the first gypsy musician to be elevated to high fashion mostly through his friendship with Franz Liszt, Lakatos was introduced to music at the age of nine.

Following his family tradition, he went on expanding his musical horizons and while playing in a gypsy band, he also studied and graduated from the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest.

Here, he won his first prize for classical violin, in 1984.

With his newly formed ensemble, Lakatos started travelling, winning audiences over from Brussels and Paris to New York and Tokyo. Over the years he has collaborated with great jazz musicians like Herbie Hancock and Stephane Grappelli and classical violinists such as Vadim Repin and
Maxim Vengerov.

A violinist and a composer, Lakatos combines gypsy rhythms, Hungarian traditional tunes, jazz and classical music, being very much at home in either New York’s Carnegie Hall or London’s legendary Ronnie Scott’s jazz club.

The Roby Lakatos ensemble, which includes Lakatos and Laszlo Boni on the violin, Jeno Lisztes (cimbalom), Laszlo Balogh (guitar), Robert Feher (double bass) and Frantisek Janoska on the clavier, will perform at the Emirates Palace Terrace here, on February 14, from 8pm.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com

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