Board of Trustees

His State-prizes: Kossuth Prize and Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning artist, a pioneer of the modern cimbalom sound. He is one of the best-known performers of Hungarian and Central European folk music, as well as world music. Throughout his career, he has performed with nearly all the most renowned authentic Hungarian folk ensembles and has participated in numerous domestic and international contemporary music, jazz formations, and classical orchestral productions. His ensemble is the Gipsy Cimbalom Band. He is a professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. In 1983, he contributed to the occasional Kolomejka Ensemble, which performed a multi-hour music and dance show at the Szeged Youth Days. 

His work has been recognized with the Artisjus Award.

Woodwind instrumentalist, one of the founders of the Makám ensemble, member of the Sebő Ensemble, and soloist of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble. He plays numerous folk and exotic wind instruments; his repertoire ranges from Hungarian, Balkan, and Middle Eastern folk music to world music.In 1983, he was a member of the occasional Kolomejka Ensemble and was a founding member of the Zsarátnok folk music ensemble. 

Mihály BORBÉLY

State awards: Kossuth Award, Liszt Ferenc Award, Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. He is a founding member of the Vujicsics ensemble, and is also active in the fields of folk and world music, jazz and contemporary music, as a member of various formations or as a soloist. He has participated in countless recordings; throughout Europe, in the USA, Mexico and Australia. He performs and makes recordings with the Balkan Jazz Project, Borbély Workshop, Borbély-Dresch Quartet, Quartet B, which he leads, and also in a duo with Károly Binder. They have released two highly successful albums with the American-Hungarian Eastern Boundary Quartet. Teaching is an important element of his life and philosophy of music. He has been an active music teacher since 1979. Since 1986, he has been a professor at the Béla Bartók School of Music, and since 1990 at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where he was also head of the department between 1997 and 2000. He has also given lectures and led courses in numerous places both at home and abroad.

Orsolya FREYTAG

Orsolya graduated from the Hungarian-French department of the University of Debrecen in 2005, and then continued her doctoral studies there. Her research field is 20th century French poetry. During her studies, she visited many parts of France, spent a long time at the University of Poitiers, and participated in the DEA training at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Civilisation Médiévale there. Her writings have been published in the journals Alföld and Debreceni Disputa, among others. She is currently a cultural manager at the international department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.

László HALÁSZ

Recipient of the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary and the Saint Sava Award, Honorary Citizen of Tököl, folk musician, founding leader of the Kolo Serbian folk music ensemble, festival organizer, and musical director of the Fáklya Dance Ensemble.

Zsigmond LÁZÁR

Composer, musician, violinist and pianist, conductor of the male choir of the Dohány Street Synagogue, violinist in a klezmer band, keyboardist in a rock band, and mathematics teacher.

➕Ferenc SEBŐ

Singer, guitarist, composer, leader of the Sebő Ensemble, and one of the initiators of the Hungarian folk dance house (táncház) movement. Kossuth and Liszt Ferenc Prize-winner, Artist of the Nation, recipient of the Medium Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit and the Hungarian Heritage Award. He also researches the relationship between folk music and poetry. As an educator and performer, he is a defining figure of Hungarian culture.

Singer, guitarist, composer, leader of the Sebő Ensemble, and one of the initiators of the Hungarian folk dance house (táncház) movement. He also researches the relationship between folk music and poetry. As an educator and performer, he is a defining figure of Hungarian culture.

Dead: 27th of April, 2026

GOD’S REST!

Choreographer, folk dance house leader, cultural manager, as well as economist and expert consultant in tourism, settlement, and regional/rural development. In 1972, he was the "junior best man" (kisvőfély) of the first Táncház in Pest as a dancer for the Bihari János Dance Ensemble led by Ferenc "Tata" Novák. He established the Kolomejka Club and later formed the occasional Kolomejka Ensemble, which in 1982 held music and dance programs and folk dance houses for thousands of young people in Szeged. As a dance ensemble organizer, he contributed to the large-scale productions of "Stephen, the King" (István, a király) in Szeged and "Itt élned, halnod kell" at Heroes' Square in Budapest. He established the first Bulgarian folk dance house in Hungary and was the choreographer and namesake of the Martenica Bulgarian Dance Ensemble, which won the national "Ki-Mit-Tud" television competition. Under the name "Körtáncház," he edited and led Hungarian and ethnic minority folk dance houses for several seasons at the Buda Youth Park and Petőfi Hall in the eighties. As head of the Budavár Program Office of the Hungarian National Gallery and later as managing director of Hungaroprogram Kft., he was the producer of several historical and costume events in the Buda Castle, in Hungary, and abroad (e.g., the first folk art fair in 1972; the Hungarian Show program of the Vienna Danube Island Festival; a full-day historical costume parade and show on the 300th anniversary of the Recapture of Buda Castle in 1986; the first "Wedding" trade exhibition and fair at the Hilton Hotel, etc.). In 1988, he was the chief organizer, editor, and producer of the first and then the second International Hussar Meeting, with the participation of military delegations from several NATO countries. He founded the Hungarian Hussar and Military Tradition Preservation Society (1988). He was invited to be the event and tourism director of the planned Budapest-Vienna World Expo, and in 1990, he created the World Expo Forum, representing 120 national interest groups, serving as its Secretary General. He prepared several program proposals for the government (e.g., Hungary's Ceremonial Cavalry Unit, National Equestrian Program, legal preparation of the "Hungarikum" law, draft law on settlement affairs). He organized and chaired numerous domestic and international conferences (e.g., 22 international conferences on the EU Danube Strategy in 10 countries of the Danube Basin between 2012 and 2013) and created national campaigns (National Beautification Competition of Public Spaces, Rural Development Forum).