Mátyás Bolya plays the oriental fretless lute (kobza) and the zither. He enjoys blending modern styles with old ones, reconstructing traditional playing techniques of the past. His distinct genre is folk music-based improvisational chamber music. Appearing in about fifty musical and theater performances, Mr. Bolya also composes, orchestrates, arranges music for puppet and dance performances, and compiles teaching materials. He is founder of the Moldvahon Csángó Cultural Society (2003), cofounder of DialekTon Folk Music Publishers, and founder of the Kárpátia Folk Band, which won the eMeRTon award for Folk Music Band of the Year in 2002. Since 2001 he has been a researcher at the Folk Music Archive in the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival – Washington D.C., June 26–June 30 and July 3–July 7, 2013
