Kardos László

Kardos László was born in Budapest in 1965 into a family of musicians. The traditions of Hungarian Gypsy music surrounded him from an early age, while accomplished musicians within his family played a defining role in his musical development.

He obtained his professional performing licence at the age of nineteen. At the National Studio of Entertainment Music, he studied under István Egerland, while his formative years as an orchestral musician were spent alongside his brothers Sándor Beke Farkas and János Burkus Farkas, as well as his paternal uncle Béla Didi.

He began his professional career at the Baricska Csárda in Balatonfüred, playing as second primás in the orchestra led by his brother Gyula “Mici” Farkas. He later performed at some of Budapest’s renowned restaurants, including Gundel, Aranyhordó and the historic Százéves Étterem.

One of the defining periods of his career began in 1994. For fourteen years, until 2008, he served as primás and orchestra leader at the Postakocsi Restaurant in Óbuda. His career also took him abroad: for three consecutive years he performed in Germany with his own ensemble for Spaten GmbH, and in 2014 he worked as a musician at the Danubius Hotel London.

From 1997 to 2016, Kardos László was a member of the 100-member Gypsy Orchestra, spending almost two decades with the internationally renowned ensemble. Between 2017 and 2020, he returned to the Lake Balaton region as orchestra leader at the Kukorica Csárda in Balatonföldvár, where he performed until the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

Throughout a professional career spanning more than four decades, Kardos László has represented, both as a primás and orchestra leader, the living tradition of Hungarian Gypsy music and the restaurant music culture passed down through generations.