Gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos is not only a scorching virtuoso, but a musician of extraordinary stylistic versatility. Equally comfortable performing classical music as he is playing jazz and in his own Hungarian folk idiom, Lakatos is the rare musician who defies definition. He is referred to as a gypsy violinist or “devil’s fiddler”, a classical virtuoso, a jazz improviser, a composer and arranger, and a 19th-century throwback, and he is actually all of these things at once. He has performed at the great halls and festivals of Europe, Asia and America.
Born in 1965 into the legendary family of gypsy violinists descended from Janos Bihari, “King of Gypsy Violinists”, Roby Lakatos was introduced to music as a child and at age nine he made his public debut as first violin in a gypsy band. His musicianship evolved not only within his own family but also at the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Budapest, where he won the first prize for classical violin in 1984. Between 1986 and 1996, he and his ensemble delighted audiences at "Les Atéliers de la grande Ille" in Brussels, their musical home throughout this period. He has collaborated with Vadim Repin and Stéphane Grappelli, and his playing was greatly admired by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, who always made a point of visiting the club in Brussels to hear Lakatos. In March 2004, Lakatos appeared to great acclaim with the London Symphony Orchestra in the orchestra’s “Genius of the Violin” festival alongside Maxim Vengerov. Just as Liszt, Brahms and others used the Hungarian overtones in their compositions, Lakatos' audience profits from the confrontation of these classics with the gypsy roots.
In 2006 Lakatos and his ensemble toured North America for the first time, including a sell-out New York City debut in Carnegie's Zankel Hall. Recent American highlights include an appearance with the Chicago's Grant Park Symphony and the Florida International Festival in Daytona Beach. Lakatos and the ensemble return to North America (and Carnegie Hall) in January 2009.
Roby Lakatos ensemble consists of:
Lászlo Bóni, 2nd violin, Jeno Lisztes, cimbalom, Laszlo Balogh, guitar, Robert Fehér, double bass, Frantisek Janoska, piano