Ensemble CIFRA Hungary, Budapest

ENSEMBLE MEMBERS ADDRESS PHOTOS CONTRACT

The CIFRA ensemble consists of four members under the direction of Dezső RONTÓ who is a descendant of a famous Hungarian musical family. In 2001 Dezso won first prize in a competition of first violins that took place in Budapest. Our "cimbalom" player also comes from a musical family from the village of Magyarpeterlaka in Transylvania. Another two members of our group come from a revival movement of folk music that took place in the late 1970's.We play amusing stringed music. We follow a rustic interpretation of a more ancient origin, and we play a refined style too. Our instruments include: fiddle, viola, cimbalom, contrabass, hurdy-gurdy, and two antique instruments, the tambura, and saxsa violin. Our repertoire is wide-ranging, including: traditional Hungarian gypsy music, csardas, songs of the tavern, Hungarian and Romanian folks music, virtuoso instrumental solos, waltzes, tangos,evergreens, and our own interpretations of classical music. We hold concerts, and perform at a wide variety of private functions including: weddings, and receptions. You may communicate with us in German, English, French and of course Hungarian.

Short movies from YouTube.
Clicking on the links below, the movie starts immediately.

CIFRAWEDDING                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b65UGlajbU
CIFRA ON THE STREET    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvzPZuWjaEI
CIFRA INFO KLIP                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFyHrSTB1Jc
CIFRA DEMO MIX               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73ffPmbo2I
Concert a Sant-Gervais-1       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICGVEYkDtpc
Concert a Sant-Gervais-2       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz-dlV1uRKo
Concert a l'ecole a Geneve-1  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzjzuezMpPw
Concert a l'ecole a Geneve-2  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkXlJ-RTsuk
Concert a l'ecole a Geneve-3  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOeogEwXNM0

Facebook grup name: CIFRA magyar cigány zenekar hungarian ghypsy music

Dezső RONTÓ - is the leading violinist of our group. He was born to a gypsy musical dynasty in Miskolc His brothers Robert and Attila are professional musiciants too. Dezső learned to play the violin when he was seven. Later he graduated from a conservatory of music, and became a leading violinist of the Rajko band of Miskolc in 1980. He was a founding member of the "100 member Gypsy band" in 2001. His achievements included first prize winning in a competition of first violins that took place in Budapest in 2001. He has played in gypsy bands since he was 20. He played on cruise ships, hotels, and pivate celebrations all over Europe and the USA.

József CSURKULY - the cimbalom player was born in 1944 in Magyarpéterlaka, Transylvania. He started playing the cimbalom as a child. When he was only 14 years old he became a member of the Maros artistic group. In this time he performed frequently with the group at weddings in Romanian and Hungarian willages. He is also a gifted craftsman as he both creates new instruments for sale and refurbishes cimbaloms. Strings require a specialized talent to create, and József is blessed with this ability.

Ágoston BARTHA - a viola and hurdy-gurdy player was born in Budapest in 1956. He studied original folk music in the 1970's. Since then he played in various bands as a hurdy-gurdy and viola player. He was the head of the CIFRA orchestra since 1990. He enjoys the life of a street musician since he believes it offers freedom and honesty. The music CD's of the band are produced and edited by him. To date, eight tapes and 6 CD's of the CIFRA band were completed under Agoston's direction. He also collects gypsy music, and 78 gramophone records that were made before World War II. He enjoys one of the largest gramophone record collections of Hungarian gypsy music which is in the process of being digitized and catalogued.

Robert CSŐGÖR - is a contrabass player born in 1966. He started to learn to play the cello while he also studied original Hungarian folk music. He has played the violin and the three and four strings viola along with the contrabass. He has experience at being a dance accompanist for traditional dance as well as a concert musician. In addition to original Hungarian folk music he also enjoys Gypsy music. He studied under famous gypsy musician Lászlo Rácz. He graduated from the faculty of folk music at teacher traning college in 2000.

ADDRESS :

Photos:

2004 - 2009

1990 - 2004