Rumen István Csörsz (1974)

voice, lute, kobsa, mandora, guitar, tambur, kanun, hurdy-gurdy, medieval fiddle, recorders, bagpipes, crumhorns, gemshorns, shawm

Csörsz, artistic director, founded the ensemble after studying the cello. Csörsz has also studied kobsa and bagpipes at the Folk Music School in Óbuda with György Lányi and Tamás Kobzos Kiss (1985-1992), as well as taken part in several Renaissance masterclasses taught by László Czidra in Keszthely. He learned many other historical instruments in private.

His academic studies began at ELTE Secondary School Radnóti Miklós (Practicing school of the Eötvös Loránd University) where he focused on History and Literature. He graduated in 1997. In 2000-2001 he was a recorder teacher at the Weiner Leó Music School in Budapest. He has since gone on to recieve a fellowship for young scientists at the Institute of Literary Studies of Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the department of 18th century literature. Csörsz is currently researching ancient Hungarian sung poetry, the variations and traditions of the autograph, and metric and melodic systems of printed popular poetry from the 18-19th century, and its musical and literary relationship with the Middle-European folk. PhD (2004). He is the author of several books and articles and since 1997 he is chairman of the Musica Historica Cultural Association.

Apart from Musica Historica, Csörsz has worked with several musical groups (Csobán, Zabula, Carmina Danubiana), other soloists, (Tamás Kobzos Kiss, Katalin Juhász, Claude Flagel, Tamás Csányi), as well as gives solo recitals. He also wrote theatre music, for example, to the medieval marionett-play Story of Snowwhite and to the interpretation of The Prince and the Pauper (Dir. László Rumi, 2001, 2004).

Roland Kasza (1975)

xylophone, percussion, harpsichord, organ

After elementary percussion and piano studies, Kasza studied percussion at the Secondary School of Arts in Szombathely (western Hungary) as a student of László Szûcs and Magdolna Szarvas. He earned his chamber musician and music teacher diploma at the Music Faculty of the Széchenyi István University, Győr in 1999 as a student of László Váray. From the autumn of 2003, he has been a student at the Conservatoire Royale de Bruxelles.

Kasza now works in the Weiner Leó Music School in Budapest as leader of the percussion departement. Since 1999 he has lead a percussion class at the Bethlen Gábor Secondary School. His pedagogic carreer has been proven by his many pupils' concerts, tv appearances and radio recordings at home and abroad. With the Chamber Choir of the National Széchényi Library and his students, Kasza performed Missa Luba (a classical mass with african folk music motives).

Since 2000 he has been a member of the Ensemble Canlar playing Turkish classical music. He has also worked as a church organist at liturgical events and a percussionist with several symphony orchestras in Hungary. He has been a member of Musica Historica since 1995.

Réka Palócz (1972)

soprano, recorders, harp

Palócz, the sopran soloist of the Ensemble Musica Historica is an experienced choir-singer. She has performed several solo parts with the Bartók Béla Choir of the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, touring with them for years. As the sound building teacher of the choir and leader of music camps she has proved her excellent pedagogic sense.

After her final examinations in the ELTE Secondary School Radnóti Miklós (Practicing school of the Eötvös Loránd University), she became a student of mathematics and descriptive geometry at the same university. She graduated in 1996 and was admitted to the Secondary School of Music Bartók Béla in Budapest. She studied singing with Zsuzsa Németh and went on to study at the Music Faculty of the Széchenyi István University, Győr with Judith Németh. She was a regular participant of the masterclasses of Júlia Hamari, Anna Reynolds and Ilona Adorján. She graduated in 2001 and has been a member of the Ensemble Musica Historica since 1994.

Zoltán Széplaki (1972)

voice, recorders, Renaissance flute, crumhorns, gemshorns

Széplaki started his musical studies in the Dohnányi Ernõ Music School in Budapest, playing the piano, the flute, and the recorder. After graduating from the Szent László Secondary School, he studied chemistry at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He earned his musical diploma (recorder) in 1999 at the Early Music Faculty of the Conservatory in Szeged as a student of László Lõrincz. He has participated in several international Baroque recorder masterclasses with Anneke Boeke and Peter Holtslag.

In 1997-98 he taught at the Weiner Leó Music School in Budapest. He then went onto work, in 1998 at the Bartók Béla Music Institute and Secondary School in Miskolc (eastern part of Hungary) as a recorder teacher. For the last several years he has been a guest professor at the universities in Debrecen and Nyíregyháza. He is a regular jury member and expert at the National Recorder Competition and similar festivals and teacher-training masterclasses.

Since 1995 he has been a member, and later leader of the Massaino Consort, as well as founding member of the Early Music Ensemble Miskolc. He also performs as a soloist or member of other groups at home and abroad. Beside music, he is a member of the selected Hungarian archers’ team and a national record-holder, winning the Hungarian championship in 1992. In 1996 he recived his sport trainer’s diploma at the School of Physical Education.

He has been playing with the Ensemble since 1990.

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Csaba Dimén (1979)

voice, treble viol, double-bass

Giso Grimm (1973)

viols, violone, double bass

Grimm was born in Uslar, Germany. As a small child, he got to know the viola da gamba on occasions of family music-making. He graduated as a physicist at the universities in Göttingen and Oldenburg. He studied the gamba with Ulrike Haase and Jenny Westman. In 2000 he was admitted to the Music Academy of Bremen, where he is now a student of Hille Perl. He took part in several masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken, Alison Crum, Sarah Cunningham, and Hermann Hickethier.

He regularly performs with his wife, Júlia Vető as a duo (Dialogue) and is member of several music groups in different European countries (Fairie-round Consort of Viols, Fiori Musicali, Bremer Barock Consort). As a physicist he researches acoustics and is an expert in recording early music.

He has been working with Musica Historica since 2000.

Júlia Vető (1974)

viols, medieval fiddle, baroque cello, keman

She started her musical studies with violin and cello. She studied English and biology at the ELTE Secondary School Radnóti Miklós (Practicing school of the Eötvös Loránd University). In 1997 she graduated from ELTE with a degree in Law. She started studying the viola da gamba privately, mostly with Anna Bartha. From 1998-2003 she was a gamba student of Sarah Cunningham and later Hille Perl at the Music Acaremy of Bremen. She participated in the masterclasses of Jordi Savall, Wieland Kuijken and Sophie Watillon as well as at the chamber music projects of Alison Crum and Richard Campbell.

She performs regularly with her husband, Giso Grimm as a duo (Dialogue), and in other ensembles (Bremer Barock Consort, Fairie-round Consort of Viols). Besides concerts, she has taken part in several CD recordings.

Her aim is to present Renaissance and baroque gamba music influenced by own research to a wide circle of people.

She has been working with the Ensemble since 1991.

Zoltán Farkas (1974)

cello, medieval fiddle

Balázs Sudár (1972)

voice, kobsa, baglama, lafta, descant lute, mandoline, psaltery, percussion

Sudár started his musical studies with the kobsa (Romanian and Hungarian plucked folk instrument) at the Folk Music School Óbuda with Tamás Kobzos Kiss. Here he also took part in a one-year masterclass on the Turkish classical instrument, the saz, with Erdal Salikoglu from Istanbul. Later, on journeys to Istanbul, he took private lessons from Yusuf Benli who is a master of the saz (baglama) as well as teacher of music theory.

After graduating from Secondary School Teleki Blanka in 1990, he studied history and turkish culture at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He worked there as an assistant teacher until 2003. Since the autumn of 2003 he is a member of the Institute for Historiography at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as a recipient of a scholarship for young scientists. His researches are on Turkish asik poetry, the classical Islamic music theory, the cultural relationships of the areas of Turkish occupation, and in particular, the medium role of the bektashi dervish order between the two cultures, and the history of Middle-Asian instruments. Author and co-author of several books, both his treatises and translations have been published. PhD (2004).

In 1997 he founded the Ensemble Canlar which is specialized in turkish classical and folk music. He occasionally guests with other groups as well.

He is a member of the Musica Historica since 1990. Apart from playing music, he directed the medieval french comedy Aucasin and Nicolete (1993) and has made several reconstructions and copies of early instruments.

Zsófia Tövisházi (1978)

violin, medieval fiddle, rebec

Tövisházi started her violin studies at her present workplace, the Szabolcsi Bence Music School. She studied English and music at the ELTE Secondary School Radnóti Miklós (Practicing school of the Eötvös Loránd University). She acquired her violin teachers’ diploma at the Music Faculty of the Széchenyi István University, Győr in 2000 as a student of Teréz Tripolszky.

From 2000 until 2002 she studied baroque violin with Simon Standage at the Akademie für Alte Musik Oberlausitz in Görlitz, Germany. As a member of the IBOG (International Baroque Orchestra Görlitz, artistic director: Ulrike Engelke) she has played several concerts and recordings. She has also attended Baroque and modern violin masterclasses with András Ágoston, Tibor Varga, Emilio Moreno, Marinette Troost and Simon Standage. From 2002 to 2006 she studied Hungarian folk music with András Jánosi at the Folk Music School Óbuda.

In 2001 she became a teacher at the Szabolcsi Bence Music School in Budapest. Here she is a regular participant of the Colourstrings Teacher Training Courses with Csaba and Géza Szilvay. She took part in the Colourstrings Forum 2008 in Helsinki.

She has been a member of the Ensemble Musica Historica since 1997.