All the way from Hungary, the Kabar Ensemble performs Friday at Lakewood's Beck Center for the Performing Arts in an all-ages concert. The goup of teens, who’ve performed in Transylvania and Romania, are in the midst of the American tour. The concert starts 8 p.m. and takes place behind the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Ave. in the Music-Armory Building. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students. For more information, call the enter at (216) 521- 2540.

Sounds of world music,
taste of Hungary hit Beck Center Friday
By Charles Cassady
happenings
Published July 26, 2006

Globetrotting reporter John Gunther repeated an anecdote about the way Hungarians are intensely patriotic and passionate about their heritage: An 8-year-old girl entering geography class is given a new globe by her father. The girl bursts into tears, wailing “Papa, I want a globe with only Hungary on it!”

You may feel the same way this Friday when the Kabar Ensemble perform, all the way from their home village of Kazár, near Salgotarjan in the Palóc region of northern Hungar, at Lakewood’s Beck Center for the Performing Arts.

“This is their first American tour — though they have performed around Europe,” said Walt Mahovlich, a member of the illustrious local music ensemble Harmonia and the founder of INSIDE World Music. Based in Cleveland’s near west side, INSIDE World Music has brought various bands from eastern Europe, Russia and India to visit stages in town, and Mahovlich staged the Resonance World Music Festival in Cleveland in April, exposing North Coast audiences to melody-makers and folk-song artistry that they would not normally get to hear. No, not even on MySpace.com or PureVolume.com.

Despite that, the Ensemble enjoyed much exposure on home soil. “They and their whole village were the subject of a well-regarded documentary on Hungarian TV,” Mahovlich said. Kabar Ensemble is a youthful quartet composed of Viktor Cserhati (violin), Mato Kapas (violin), Peter Juhasz (bracsa, “a sort of folk viola, is what it is”), and Laszlo Nagy (bass). For Magyar vocalizations they’ll be joined by singer Julia Kubinyi. Their adult mentor Szabolcs Hruz, a well-known folk fiddler, who also appears with them at the Beck Center.

“All of them are currently in high school,” Mahovlich said of the foursome.

Don’t think they are the Hungarian equivalent of the Singing Angels, though, which has a constantly changing lineup under grown-up supervision. Members of the Kabar Ensemble met and have remained together since elementary school.

“They organized themselves,” Mahovlich said. “I’d be more likely to compare them to a garage band or a bluegrass band than to the Singing Angels.”

Mahovlich emphasized that the bands repertoire of “Hungarian roots music,” village songs, traditional ballads of love and pastoral life, music that goes back centuries, is not at all a dying art form needing to be rescued for the new generations. This is the new generation.

“There are plenty of young people who are very interested in Hungary,” he said.

Members of the Kabar Ensemble have undertaken tours in the Hungarian-populated areas of Romania and Transylvania to learn and perpetuate more distinct folk traditions. Their United States tour (running through the end of August) came about following the invitation of the international Hungarian Scout Association, a group with particularly strong representation in the United States, especially Cleveland. 

To give concert-goers a total-immersion cultural experience, Mahovlich has arranged that after the show the Kabar Ensemble will play for a “táncház,” a traditional dance party.

“I’ve really tried to incorporate something about the way people experience music the way it’s performed in that culture,” he said, welcoming all to become Hungarian for a night. Ethnic pastries and refreshments also will be available.

“I’m very excited about bringing these guys,” Mahovlich said

The all-ages concert starts 8 p.m. Friday and takes place behind the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Ave. in the Music-Armory Building. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students. For more information, call the center at (216) 521-2540.

The Kabar Ensemble Web site (non-Magyar readers might want to click on the Union Jack flag for an English translation) is www.kabar.hu/home.htm.