MINDSPEAK & Jeremy dePrisco



		The Bodó Band West Coast tour photos and stories... Bodó Band Concert Calendar (now in Hungary) The Band... Béla Marssó - Violin Béla has been playing Hungarian folk music on his violin since 1972. Until this date he played for a variety of local symphonic and rock bands. He traveled to many, many places around the world in those times when it was very difficult to travel because of the political situation. He has played in several Greek and German festivals; he has played to Turkish nomadic people and the mayor of Paris. He went with his various bands to almost every large city in the socialist block from Rostock to Ohrid; he also has played in salt mines and on an airplane. In 1984 he and his band won a prize on the Bretagne Peninsula where he accompanied the Kállai Kettos Folkdance Group with Gyula Rácz (viola), Zoltán Bogdán (cymbals), and István Kocsán (double bass). Béla has a magnetic power—young people around him are drawn to start studying an instrument and join the group of cheerful musicians. His hobby is gliding, he has been a member in the Gliding Club of Nyíregyháza. (from Bodó Band web site) * * * Katalin Tamás - Viola She decided to start gliding in 1998, after graduating from the University of Miskolc, Hungary. At the airfield she met Béla and his musician friends. They made her like folkmusic so much, that she joined the band on three-string viola. She picked up the basics of viola playing from Gyula Rácz, a gypsy musician of Sarkad, Southern Hungary. She played in several interesting places around the world: Hungarian Embassy and the summer palace of Peter I in Saint Peterburg, Russia, the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna, Austria, Jerusalem. At the moment, she is studying Business at the University of Bloomsburg, where she is organizing the band of the Susquehanna International Folk Dancers. She is also on the board of trustees in the first folkradio of Europe. (from Bodó Band web site) * * * Jeremy dePrisco - Bass He has been playing bass since he was 13 years old. He also plays guitar and several other instruments and writes songs. He played doublebass with his local orchestra in Hazleton, PA and in 1992 studied doublebass at Bloomsburg University and performed for several semesters with the University Community Orchestra. In 1998 Jeremy founded his web site, www.mindspeak.com to showcase his many collaborations within the rock, pop, folk and theatre music genres. Since then, Jeremy has composed and released two albums of original music on the Blue Buddha Records label, and has performed throughout Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia, New York. Jeremy has recently been participating in a number of East/West collaborations with international students and artists from abroad. Jeremy met The Bodó Band while attending classes at Bloomsburg University in 2003, and looks forward to providing some "boom-chuck" to their exciting and captivating music. (Note: Jeremy is based in the US - the band is currently in Hungary with various bass players.) * * * Click here for The Bodó Band official site Bodó is the name for a small place near Nyiregyhaza, Eastern Hungary where Katalin lives. Its complete name is Bodóhegy, in which "hegy" means mountain. However, Hunagry is almost completely flat, so this mountain is maybe 25 meters high. You can see some pictures about Nyiregyhaza at http://www.nyiregyhaza.hu, or read a little bit at http://www.stg.co.hu/nyhaza/iranytu/eeloszo.htm Hungary Info Where is Hungary? (PDF from nationalgeographic.com) Béla & Janika in New Orleans.