Excanto

The Excanto Ensemble was formed in 1998 in Budapest. In the repertoire of the ensemble consist mainly of renaissance and baroque music, but they also ready to play later composers pieces that are suitable to their instruments. Since their fundation they have appeared, among other events, at the Spring Festival of Budapest, at The Valley of Arts in Kapolcs and the Castle Concerts of Gödöllő, as well as twice in London (Hungary in Focus, Docklands Festival) and in Innsbruck.

Gábor Kállay

Gábor Kállay the leader of the ensemble graduated as an electrical engineer from the Budapest Technical University before undertaking graduate level studies at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. He is currently best known as an opera and concert singer but he is also a singer and instrumental soloist with the Camerata Hungarica, the Mandel Quartet and Affetti Musicali. He also composes and Editio Musica Budapest has published his transcriptions, a collection of studies as well as his own compositions. He is a member of the classical music composer's section of Artisjus and teaches recorder and chamber music at the Leo Weiner College of Music.

Katalin Kállay

Katalin Kállay studied viola at the Leó Weiner College of Music with Sándor Papp, and recorder with László Czidra. She graduated from the the musicology faculty of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in 2006. She is currently studying recorder at Szeged University with László Lőrincz. She has attended master classes by Peter Holtslag and Anneke Boeke. She is a member of the Camerata Hungarica, Sebastian Consort, Marquise and Excanto early music ensembles. She also teaches at the Leó Weiner College of Music and the the Budapest College of Contemporary Dance.

Ágnes Kállay

Ágnes Kállay started playing the violonchello at the age of six, as a student of Magda Kovácsné Angyal. She continued her studies under György Dári at the Béla Bartók College of Music in Budapest. She went on to the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where she attended the class of István Csurgay and received her degree in 2006. Than she studied with a DAAD scholarship under Maria Kliegel, at the Hochschule für Misik in Cologne, Germany. She won the Alpe Adria International Violonchello Competition (Gorizia), the Beethoven Chamber Music Competition organised by BPSE (London) and participated in several master courses.

András Csáki

András Csáki started playing the guitar at the age of 11 as a pupil of László Kozma. Since 1996 he was a student of Sándor Szilvágyi in Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music, and after graduation he carried on his studies with Ede Roth and Balázs Arnóth in Győr. In 2002 he was admitted to the guitar faculty of Ferenc Liszt University of Music, where he has been instructed by József Eötvös. He graduated in 2007, he received a diploma with honour as a master of music in performance guitar and teaching. From September he is a full-time DLA student at the Academy of Music in Budapest. In 2008 he received Fischer Annie scholarship for performing arts in music. Since 1997 he has been successfully taking part in international competitions. He has won the following first prizes: IV. Anna Amalia Jugend Gitarrenwettbewerb (Weimar); XXVI. Dr. Luis Sigall Musical Contest (Vina del Mar, Chile); Johann Kaspar Mertz International Guitar Competition (Bratislava); John Duarte International Guitar Competition (Rust, Austria); Jan Edmund Jurkowski International Guitar Competition (Tychy, Poland); XXXV. International Jeunesses Musicales Competition (Belgrade); Forum Gitarre X. International Guitar Competition (Vienna)

External links

[Homepage of the Excanto Ensemble:] http://andrascsaki.com/excanto/excanto.html