The Bodó Band was formed in Nagykálló, in eastern Hungary in 2000. From that time, the two permanent member have played together with several other musicians—including violin players Antal Kerezsi, Edina Jakab, viola player Pál Kocsán, and double bass players István Kocsán, János Erdei, Tamás Figeczki, and Sándor Oláh.

In addition to Nagykálló musical heritage, you can listen to their performances of tunes by Dunántúli, Sárközi, Zempléni, Bonchidai, Kalotaszegi, and other folksongs from Transylvania.

During the first half of 2003 the band has been playing Hungarian Folk Music in several different states of the USA. Take a look at the detalied concert schedule here.

In these days Béla is a resident of Ireland, so the performances and jams are held in Irish pubs - about two times in a month.

Béla Marssó

Béla has been playing Hungarian folk music on his violin since 1972. Until this date he played for a variety of local symphonic and rock bands. He traveled to many, many places around the world in those times when it was very difficult to travel because of the political situation. He has played in several Greek and German festivals; he has played to Turkish nomadic people and the mayor of Paris.  He went with his various bands to almost every large city in the socialist block from Rostock to Ohrid; he also has played in salt mines and on an airplane. In 1984 he and his band won a prize on the Bretagne Peninsula where he accompanied the Kállai Kettős Folkdance Group with Gyula Rácz (viola), Zoltán Bogdán (cymbals), and István Kocsán (double bass). Béla has a magnetic power—young people around him are drawn to start studying an instrument and join the group of cheerful musicians. His hobby is gliding, he has been a member in the Gliding Club of Nyíregyháza.

Katalin Tamás

Katalin decided to start gliding in 1998, after graduating from Hungary’s University of Miskolc. At an airfield she met Béla and his musician friends. They made her like folk music so much that she joined the band on three-string viola. She picked up the basics of viola playing from Gyula Rácz, a gypsy musician of Sarkad in southern Hungary. Katalin has played in some interesting places around the world: in the Hungarian Embassy and the summer palace of Peter I in Saint Petersburg, Russia; in the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna, Austria; in Jerusalem. In 2003 she studied Business at Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg University where she organized the band of the Susquehanna International Folk Dancers. At the moment she works for a dealer of the General Motors. She also serves on the board of trustees for the Hungarian Folkradio

Raul Rothblatt

Raul was once a classically trained musician (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and graduate program in Musical Theatre Compositionat NYU) but ten years of playing Hungarian folk music completely transformed him. He plays African-Hungarian jazz in the Dallam-Dougou and he has other collaborations with choreographers and musical writer. We are traveling together to the TGD4, Senegal.

Jeremy dePrisco

He has been playing bass since he was 13 years old. He also plays guitar and several other instruments and writes songs. In 1998 Jeremy founded his web site, to showcase his many collaborations within the rock, pop, folk and theatre music genres. Since then, Jeremy has composed and released two albums of original music on the Blue Buddha Records label, and has performed throughout Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia, New York. Jeremy met The Bodó Band while attending classes at Bloomsburg University in 2003.

János
Erdei

Recording with us for our debut CD were János Erdei and Patrick Farrell. János was born in Nagykálló, where he played rock and folk music with local bands.  Currently he lives in Florida.

Patrick Farrell

Patrick Farrell plays jazz and klezmer music in New Orleans, where he lives together with ten other artists (musicians, photographers, screen painters) in a fantastic renovated warehouse. About our New Orleans stay just go to Plus.