Fundák Kristóf

Fundák Kristóf started dancing at the age of six with Csepel Dance Ensemble, going on to the Angyalföldi Vadrózsa Dance Ensemble and Jászság Folk Ensemble. He teaches folk dance at multiple dance groups throughout Hungary, and is the artistic director of the Angyalföld Vadrózsa Dance Ensemble. Kristóf is also a very talented choreographer. He has won numerous prestigious awards during his career, the most significant of which are the Örökös Sarkantyú award and the Felszállott a Páva competition, along with his wife, Lili. In 2016, he taught and performed at Calgary’s Western Canadian Hungarian Folk Festival.

Fundák-Kaszai Lili

Fundák-Kaszai Lili started dancing at a young age with the Iglice Children’s Dance Group, and was member of the Jászság Folk Ensemble for more than a decade after that. She teaches folk dance at multiple dance groups throughout Hungary, and she is the artistic director of the Angyalföld Vadrózsa Dance Ensemble. Lili is also a very talented singer, and is the lead singer in the Besh O Drom band. She has won numerous awards during her career, the most significant of which are the Örökös Aranygyöngyös award, and the Felszállott a Páva competition, along with her husband, Kristof.  Lili taught and performed at Calgary’s Western Canadian Hungarian Folk Festival.

Kovács Dénes and Nagy Vivien

The love of folk culture, especially the love of folk dance has had a decisive role in the lives of Nagy Vivien and Kovács Dénes. Since 2013, they’ve been members of the Angyalföld Vadrózsa dance ensemble. Previously, Vivien was a member of the Vasas Art Ensemble and Dénes was a member of the Debrecen Folk Ensemble. At the National Solo Dance Competition in Békéscsaba, they won their first Golden Bead and Golden Spur dance titles in 2017 and their second in 2023. They maintain active relations with the Hungarian communities of the diaspora. Between 2018 and 2020, they were instructors of the Los Angeles Carpathian Folk Dance Ensemble within the framework of the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor program, and since then they have been helping the work of the community year after year.

Zina Bozzay

Zina Bozzay is an active performer, researcher, arranger, and teacher of traditional Hungarian village folk songs around the world. Born in San Francisco as the daughter of a Hungarian immigrant and trained by master folk singers in Hungary, she collects songs from the last living village singers who learned in the oral tradition. She has performed at the Táncháztalálkozó, Hungarian Heritage House, National Theatre, and Hungarian Parliament in Budapest, and was soloist at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, the Golden Festival in New York, and the Kárpátok 50th Anniversary Gala in Los Angeles. She tours internationally with her ensemble Vadalma, performing her acclaimed original folk song arrangements. Deeply committed to accessibility and the diaspora, Zina founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle (Népdalkör) in 2010 with a focus on serving Hungarian-Americans and non-Hungarian speakers, and since then has taught folk songs to thousands of people from over 50 countries, currently teaching at several institutions in Budapest as well as in her popular international online classes. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, holds a Masters degree in Music Composition, and has the highest level of accreditation as an Advanced Hungarian Folk Singing Educator through the Hungarian government. www.zinabozzay.com.