View Cart + Check Out

Interview with Andras Lelkes of
Tükrös Ensemble
and co-founder of the
FolkEuropa label

Part One

In addition to playing double bass for top Hungarian folk band Tükrös,  András Lelkes is a significant part of the management and production team of the record label FolkEuropa. 

Having completed his studies at universities in Hungary and Spain he began a career in marketing and sales. It was in this area he gained experience in finance and company evaluations etc, working  initially for a bank then for a Spanish management consultancy company.

During this time he continued his folk (and blues) bass playing at weekends before releasing in 1996 the first Tukros CD through Fono Records in Budapest.

In February 2001 he, along with Endre Liber, took the giant step of setting up a their own company to promote and release folk music - that company being FolkEuropa, and its mission being to find musicians who - with their music  - are valuable to European culture. 

They spent 2001 building the company and during this time many old good friends joined their roster of artists wishing to be managed by them so as to reach a wider European audience. Such artists like Kalman Balogh and the Gipsy Cimbalom Band, Meta, Robert Kerenyi (ex-Tatros), János Zerkula and others. They have also joined forces with X-Produkcio so as to pool their resources.

In the first part of this interview Andras talks about his roll in folk music and Tukros, and in part two we focus more on the roster of artists in FolkEuropa.

Decmber 2002

Ian Morrison (IM) When and how did Tukros start? Where is the name from and who is in the current line-up? What is the average age of Tukros members?

András Lelkes (AL) Tukros was set up by Attila Halmos (violin) and Peter Arendas (hudy-gurdy) both aged 17 in 1986. Later Zoltan Langer (bass) and Endre Liber (viola) joined the band. In few years they found out that they needed someone who played the cimbalom, so Endre after so many other instruments (like bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, flutes, etc.) started to learn cimbalom, while at the same time Peter started playing the viola. Back then Peter played the hurdy-gurdy but he only occasionally does nowadays, the band keeping the cimbalom and now both of them play viola.

Later Robert Door joined the band after Zoltan Langer has left. In few years I started playing with them at the Teka camps, meanwhile playing in the Dr. Valter group. Around 1994-1995 I started to play with them more and more as Robert Door has been playing a lot with Okros Ensemble at this time. During these years we found singer Eva Korpas in the Hungarian-speaking region of Slovakia, where we were invited quite frequently.

Then in 1996 we released our first CD with Fono, where already our friend Gergely Koncz was participating as a guest performer (violin). Later when we started to do the promotional concerts we found out that with Gergely life was much easier as he is a fantastic first violinist as well as Attila, but also gorgeous for a second violin or viola. The band became bigger and playing music became easier. At this time he was playing in other bands as viola player. So the band was formed.

The name originally means a kind of box which had mirror in it. It came in various sizes from bigger furniture to a handy little toolbox, which was useful for keeping a little mirror and some oils, fats for shaving and shaping the moustache. If used as a piece of furniture one could keep in it valuable items, like palinka, money, a bible, medicines, etc.

So it is a valued box, and also something which could mirror the traditions, values, etc. ... There could be at least this two understanding of this.


(2) Tükrös Zenekar

Members of the group (birth year):

Endre Liber 1966

Attila Halmos 1969

Péter Árendás 1969

Éva Korpás around 25-30 year-old

Andras Lelkes 1973

Gergely Koncz 1975

(IM) What was your first exposure to Hungarian folk music?

(AL) Each member of Tukros has different roots. Attila's father is a famous ethno-musicologist, our Szatmar CD is mostly rooted from his research. My father is a folk dancer and was founding member of the dance-house movement.

The others has similar roots, but all connected to traditional folk dance or music. Everybody has musical background as well. Gergely's and Endre's grandfather was cantor.

(IM) Concerning your repertoire, you seem to concentrate a lot on the folk music of Szatmar and Mezoseg?

(AL) In Hungary no other place has had its folk music researched more than in Transylvania. From Bartok already, everybody has gone to the extremities of Hungary. Also, the 'fashion' has taken everybody to Transylvania. There has been much more tradition left alive in Transylvania at the age when we started to go there. So we started to learn the music of Transylvania. Soon we discovered that there is so much different music that we can not learn all of it at the level we would require from each other. So we selected several regions, those being the music of Bonchida, Szek, Magyarpalatka, which we started to learn more in depth. 

Then we started to see that everybody is concentrating on Transylvania and no other Hungarian-territory music is played, and we had already fallen in love with Szatmar. So we released a Szatmar CD (FECD001). Since then we started to learn more music, as you can see we cover already big parts of the Uplands (Slovakia), and also started learn others e.g. Péterlaka (Székely land) and Kalotaszeg and Gyimes and also others which might not be that famous.

So in slow steps our intentions is to broaden our portfolio but we never only learn some tunes, but always try to understand and know the whole material so as to be able to play in the authentic style. This is a lot of work, and we are thorough, but the success might come later ...

(IM) On field trips collecting music and songs, has there been any particular villages or village musicians that have stood out as a rich source to draw upon?

(AL) Nearly all of the music which we play is because of the personal ties that are so strong between us and the musicians of the villages - this is what has pushed us to get an in depth appreciation of their music. The list might not be complete, but here are some most important: Icsan Sandor and his band (Szek); the whole Palatka band, also the younger (Magyarpalatka), the band from Nyirmada (Szatmar), especially Samu Mihaly; Potta Geza and Djuga Geza 'Pimasz' (Uplands) ...

(IM) How much and in what way (if at all) do you think village musicians, singers and bands in Transylvania and Modavia have changed since the days when Bartok and Kodaly etc first visited and heard them?

(AL) Good question. According to Bartok when he wrote a letter to Kodaly he was claiming that he only can find these new-dance stlyle csardas. We only can find the new-singing style csardas, which is already 50 years at least older then the type of csardas he found. He was claiming the he can not find anything 'old'. What can we say, when we do not find anything at all in some cases...?!

(IM) Can you tell us something about and how you discover the work of Hans Hurtig?

(AL) Yes. We did used his works from Szatmar, and also from other regions. Myself I do not know him, but the others did appreciated him and his works.

(IM) The CD 'Szatmar Nepzene - Hungarian Village music from the 20th Century' (FECD001), was awarded the 'Golden Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Arts', can you tell us something about this award?

(AL) This award is something which is given by a prestigious association. For everyday buyers it doesn't say anything, it is nothing like the Golden Price of Oscar, or the Hungarian Oscar. But we are proud of it because it is given by this prestigious artists association.

(IM) There is some excellent playing on your recordings particularly on the violin and cimbalom, how do the 'master' instrumentalists in the villages you visit react to this playing?

(AL) This is how these masters play (really), sorry, they play even better. We just have to learn from them this extremely good style of playing. Some of the dance-house musicians are sometimes still not on the level that their masters have targeted for them, and a lot of people could have the idea that these old village musicians play as them. No, they play extremely well..

So they reaction is: good-good, you still can learn a lot ...

You will see on the new album of Zerkula (FECD006) what this old master is saying. I think he is right.


(3) Janos Zerkula

(IM) I know that you also enjoy playing blues and other types of music, do you ever try and introduce these into your folk music?

(AL) This is how I could enter to Tukros. When they first saw me playing blues they decided that I am going to play with them in the future.

On the other hand I do not cross boundaries by myself. If the original music allows me to play similar things I do, but it is not that I introduce something to somewhere. It is already there, but not always played.

(IM) When did you first start your camp, Tukros Tabor?

(AL) The first Tukros camp was in Debrecen in 1996, next year also in Debrecen organized by the brother-in-law of Peter Arendas. Then we had a little break, the we restarted to have Tukros camp from 2001. Since then we had two camps in Hungary and four in the world.

(IM) How do you organise the events at your camp? Are the programs and events there based on your (and other members of Tukros) experiences in researching and collecting folk songs?

(AL) The whole camp is organised by the band. FolkEuropa is the background in organization but the band's brainstorming is the resource for the program. Then we physically do the whole camp.

Yes it is mainly based on our previous experience from camps and research. The research gives us the flexibility and solid basis for the teaching hours (daytime) and the camp experience for the fun hours (at night).

The programs are always concentrated around two areas.

First: children. We pay a lot of attention to children's education. We give at least half of our resources to the children if not more. Every day there is at least 10 hours of dancing, singing and playing with children with live music and the same amount of hours for handcrafts. (this is the same with the adults). Besides this we give programs for the adults 24 hours a day, including music and dance and singing teaching.

Every teaching is fully based on our, and others, research and previous experience.

Besides this we organize other type of programs in the camps for every night, which includes jazz, blues concerts, theatres, photo exhibitions, etc.

(IM) Recently you toured Australia and the US, were these tours a success?

(AL) Definitely yes, at least according to us. We had success in two types of communities. On one side we played in both countries for Hungarian communities. Here if we could play enough known songs, we had great success. In other communities for the Australian or American community we even had bigger success. Instead of two hours we normally finished a concert in three three-and-a-half hours, due to the audience demand, and the sales of the CDs went up everywhere !

(IM) Did you have on tour with you any dancers?

(AL) We always have with us dancers on tour. We nearly always work with Dusan Hegli and his partner, who is the director of 'Young Hearts', the Slovakian Hungarian Professional Dance Ensemble.

(IM) Any particular places or concerts stand out for you on these tours?

(AL) Tilly's Café in Canberra, Harp Pub - Sydney, The Hakoah Club, Bondi Beach, Sydney, The Boite Melbourne, Johny D's Music Club, Boston.

(IM) Did you see or meet other bands who play folk or world music?

(IM) What are the future plans for Tukros, that is, new releases and concerts etc?

                                                              back to top