Immerse yourself in the rich traditions and powerful melodies of Hungarian music with your Cape Symphony Orchestra at our “Passport to Hungary” concert on January 27 and 28, 2024. Guest artists Roby Lakatos and the Roby Lakatos Ensemble promise to make this a truly extraordinary event.
Roby Lakatos is an internationally acclaimed violin virtuoso whose music, passion, good humor and incomparable style promote Hungarian culture around the globe. He’s known as a Gypsy violinist, a classical master, and a jazz improvisor, composer and arranger. He’s performed at the world’s great concert halls, including at the Vatican, London’s Albert Hall, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. We could not be more thrilled to have him as our guest at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center.
A direct, seventh-generation descendent of legendary Hungarian violinist János Bihari – the “King of Gipsy Violinists” famously admired by Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt – Roby grew up in a family of exceptional musicians and learned to play the violin in earliest childhood. Educated at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, he took first prize for violin at age 19 and set off for Belgium, from which he launched a world-wide concert career. He is at much at home with classical as he is with Hungarian folk music.
Roby is internationally recognized for renewing interest in Hungarian folk music by fusing it with classical music, Balkan music, Orthodox Jewish music, and even jazz. “When Lakatos mixes the so-called ‘classical music’ with the magic of the Hungarian-gypsy vitality,” writes Czech Consul John Zavrel, “it does not turn into a disrespectful attitude toward the ‘higher’ cultural heritage, but it more reflects the deep tradition rooted in cultural heritage... and offers new, refreshing pleasures to the listener and music lover.”
Roby’s ensemble is composed of younger, classically educated virtuoso musicians who have also grown up with traditional Hungarian folklore. The Roby Lakatos Ensemble has recorded a unique style of music incorporating folk elements with jazz, improvisation, and technical effects, as well as works of classical composers from Kodály to Brahms, and John Williams’s music for Schindler’s List. The combination of classical and contemporary elements with jazz and folk idioms excites and delights audiences.
Cape Symphony’s “Passport to Hungary” program includes works by Zoltán Kodály, Franz Liszt, and Béla Bartók, followed by shorter pieces by Darius Blasband, Jerry Bock, J. Suha Balogh and others. Roby Lakatos's performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” is sure to be a highlight!
Secure your tickets now for this amazing performance.
“Passport to Hungary” will be performed at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center on Saturday, January 27 at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, January 28 at 3:00 PM. Kevin Fitzgerald will conduct. Concert tickets are available on our website. You may also email
