Roby Lakatos and his ensemble has, in the past two years, found themselves in great demand in Asia, especially Korea and Japan. Despite their busy touring schedule, the seven musicians will manage to stop by Taipei for a concert Sunday.
The 38-year-old violinist is a seventh-generation direct descendant of the legendary Hungarian gypsy violinist Janos Bihari (1764-1827). Dubbed "King of the Gypsy Violinists" and "Hungarian Orpheus" by the likes of Franz Liszt and Ludwig van Beethoven, Bihari shaped the development of violin music at his time and his descendents went on to influence Gypsy violin music through the centuries.
Being born into such a musical family meant that Lakatos had an early start in music. At the age of five he was already studying under the late master gypsy violinist Sandor Lakatos -- an uncle -- and his father, jazz saxophone player Tony Lakatos. At nine, he gave his first public concert. Although Lakatos learned music mainly in his family, he also studied classical violin at the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest, where he won the first prize in 1984.
Lakatos and his ensemble performed at Belgium's famous jazz club Les
Ateliers in Brussels from 1986 to 1996, steadily building up a reputation for astounding violin technique. Sir Yehudi Menuhin was a frequent guest at his shows.
As Lakatos' popularity has grown, his fans have not had the chance to see him perform at such intimate venues, as demand to see him perform keeps his schedule packed with some of the world's biggest venues. Lakatos has performed at the Ludwigsburg and Schleswig-Holstein Festivals, at London's Elizabeth Concert Hall and at New York's Central Park with the Orchestre National de Radio France and Dresden Philharmonic.
Lakatos' first visit to Taiwan was in 1999 as part of his Asian debut. His concert transformed the rather solemn National Concert Hall into a relaxing cabaret. What amazed the audience in particular were his strumming, pizzicato and playful effects, all achieved seemingly without effort. Lakatos' appeal lies his ability to interpret, arrange and compose music of various genres in his own particular style. His repertoire includes Hungarian folk songs, classical numbers, jazz compositions, Moorish melodies as well as Italian operas. Lakatos' signature fusing of different styles has been viewed as quintessentially gypsy, while his unconventional performing style won him the nickname "devil's fiddler."
In classical music, he has collaborated with the young Russian violinist Vadim Repin. He also worked with the late French jazz violinist Stepane Grappelli, to whose inspiration he attributed his improvisational skills. Lakatos has also worked with Argentine clarinet player Giora Feidman, American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, and jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker.
Deutsche Grammophon signed him on after listening to just one performance back in 1998. The next year, Zubin Mehta invited him as a guest performer in the production of Fledermaus at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich after hearing Lakatos' performance for the first time. Lakatos' first recording was 1991's In Gypsy Style, though he did not make many recordings until after he joined Deutsche Grammophon. 1998's Lakatos is composed of arrangements of works by Brahms, Khachaturian, Russian folksongs and his own compositions. It also features the theme from Schindler's List by John Williams, which was wildly popular when he performed it last time in Taipei. It won the prestigious German Echo-Klassik Award in 1999.
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