Romani Rhapsody | Impresario Club

Roby Lakatos is not only a virtuoso on the violin, but also an extremely versatile musician who is equally adept to performing classical music, jazz and the folk idiom of his home country of Hungary. He is hard to define: most often, he is described as a Gypsy violinist, a devil’s fiddler, classical master, jazz improviser, composer and arranger – and his unique artistic personality is all that. He is a universal musician combining brilliant technique that makes him one of the best violinists in the world with creativity in improvisation and composing power.

Roby Lakatos usually performs with his Ensemble consists of exceptional string instrumentalists, pianist and cimbalist and the group is often invited to play in orchestral arrangements. Roby’s Ensemble today is composed of virtuoso musicians with classical musical education who are also well versed in the folklore tradition of Hungarian Gypsies. Those guys definitely know how to warm up the audience; where to give jazz, where to crumble with the tune of the violin pizzicato, spill the piano passages and all of a sudden, they all get together and lead to the final, to an optimistic note!

Vilmos Csikos (double bass) was born into a family of musicians in Budapest – his mother played the violin and his father was one of the best gypsy bassists in the country. From an early age, Vilmos was in contact with different music genres: American jazz, classical music, Romanian traditional music, etc. His favorite instrument has always been the double bass, but being too small to play at six, he was first introduced to the piano. He attended classes at the famous Dugonics School in Budapest. During that time, he won several national competitions. Vili regularly plays with Roby’s Ensemble since 2017.

Lubomír Gaspar, a cimbalom player and arranger was born on October 14th 1989 in Banská Bystrica. For the first 15 years of his life he lived in the central part of Slovakia in a small town called Detva. The town is known for its still well-maintained, rich folk-based tradition. Ľubomír comes from the most famous family of musicians from the region and its surroundings. His passion for music began to rise into attention at primary art school.

Later on, he studied at Conservatoire of J.L.Bell in Banská Bystrica attending classes of Mgr.art Martin Budinský. He developed his profound skills, knowledge and experience while digging deeper into the beauty and sophistication of classical music, what profoundly influenced his future musical career.

During his studies, he became acquainted with two important music genres that made a huge impact on his career path. One of the styles represents traditional Hungarian Gypsy music, very specific for cimbalom. The other one is a genre of jazz music. At a very young age, as a little boy he improvised to various musical themes, folk songs as well as he composed his own songs.

In 2013, he got a scholarship at J. Albrecht Music Academy in Banská Štiavnica. He graduated with a Master diploma under the leading wings of worldwide known cimbalom player Mgr.art Marcel Comendant. Ľubomír has established a number of musical projects, holding concerts in his homeland of Slovakia as well as on an international spectrum. He is also a guest musician in various traditional, jazz and world music ensembles. Ľubomír Gašpar is a significant cimbalom player who has created his own signature work in the music field during his musical career.

Robert Szakcsi Lakatos (piano) from Budapest, was part of Roby’s Ensemble from 2019. This exceptionally gifted jazz and classical pianist won the first prize of the solo piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2000. In 2005, he was voted best soloist at the Avignon International Jazz Festival. Robert Lakatos has already recorded eight albums for Japanese label Atelier Sawano.