Jozsef Terek

Jozsef Terek is an outstanding Hungarian performer, and a popular musician of the Hungarian folk art scene appearing both in ‘Kivansagkosar’ show on Duna TV and on Danko Radio. His musical career started 30 years ago in his hometown, Tapioszele, but since then, he has performed on stages throughout Europe, America, Africa, Oceania and Asia, and also represented Hungary in 36 other countries performing at various world music festivals, theatres, universities, competitions for composers as well as professional conferences. He is also a multiple nominee of the UK Songwriting Contest and a multiple finalist of the International Songwriting competition representing his home country performing his own compositions. As a result of saving cultural values, there have been 25 CDs and a DVD-ROM released, and 15 books published since 2009. His career as a soloist began in 2015 with the release of ‘Tarogato as a Hungaricum’. Paying great respect to the symbol of Hungarians as well as to the performers of tarogato (Turkish pipe or taragot), he launched a series of concerts titled ‘Tarogato Hungaricum’ aimed at showing the versatility of this musical instrument. One can listen to Rakoczi marches, the songs found in old Hungarian codices, verbunkos music, authentic folk music, Hungarian melodies, classical music, and popular pieces performed at these concerts. By incorporating his own pieces and renditions into the pieces, he has a unique musical program worthy of representing Hungary on the international scene.
„As a wedding present in 2009, an ethnic Hungarian refugee forced to leave the country in1956 gave me an original, almost hundred-year-old Stowasser-made tarogato. His request was that I should play it, represent the case for tarogatos, never resell it to anyone, but in the course of time donate to someone worthy of having it, so that the sound of tarogatos should never fall silent and die away, as this is the sound of the Hungarian nation and, as such, the past, present and future of the entire nation. Promoting the case of our “Hungarikum” musical instrument, the tarogato began internationally in 2016. In the past few years my goal has always been to find of way how I can show people from any country in the world that there is an instrument which is unique to Hungary, can only be found in the Carpathian Basin, and can serve the purpose of creating Hungarian and international tunes so as to make them popular and easy to be embraced by all. The concert material was adapted to this goal. In addition to Hungarian tunes and dances found in Hungarian codices, notas from the Rakoczi era, Hungarian notas, pieces of gypsy music, folk music and classical music complement the material together with virtuoso solo pieces. Musical pieces by great Hungarian composers, including Bela Bartok, Zoltán Kodaly, Janos Bihari, Janos Lavotta, etc. that can be performed on tarogatos can also be heard here; and they are complemented by my own pieces – so far 50 have been ready – composed expressly for the tarogato in a folk music and gypsy band style, and for a tarogato-piano duet, respectively. Upon requests made by several embassies, Hungarian institutes, international conferences, universities, festivals, I have managed to extensively introduce our “Hungarikum”musical instrument, the tarogato in the past five years in twenty different countries during almost forty trips, and in approximately one hundred venues. Interest in the events and the instrument has been exceptionally high, as it shows that we, Hungarians can find or provide something new in this area, perhaps another interface between countries. As a result, I have personally managed to communicate the sound of the tarogato and our “Hungarikum” tarogato concert to nearly ten thousand people – these events include one or two popular tunes of the particular country performed for the audience, thus indicating that our musical instrument can be used to perform the music of foreign countries, and we are open to the world as regards all of its musical genres and styles, respectively. The sound of the tarogato has reached hundreds of millions of people all around the world via broadcast media upon my works being published and advertised in interviews, concert recordings, TV and radio programs, and online newspapers and newsfeeds, respectively.”

„Whenever the sound of the tarogato starts playing somewhere int he world, the hearts of the Hungarians are in perfect sync with it.”

Jozsef Terek
Hungarian golden cross of Merit awarded musician, composer
Member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts

Web: http://www.terekjozsef.com

You can find Jozsef’s 2021 European Music Competition tarogato performance here.

You can find Jozsef’s 2022 20th Century Music Competition tarogato performance here.