Kalman Magyar is a renowned musician who has appeared in the world’s most prominent performing venues and obscurest ethnic community halls.
According to The New York Times, Kalman “stood out for his warmth and musical versatility”. Attitude (The Dancer’s Magazine) has called him a “violin virtuoso”. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette observed that Kalman “displayed his mastery of many ethnic instruments rarely heard in concert”. Cleveland’s Plain Dealer wrote that Kalman “proved to be an excellent showman as well as a versatile player of five different instruments.”
Kalman’s many studio recordings have been praised in several leading music publications. U.K.’s fRoots called him a “skilful, experienced player, particularly on violin” and his playing “quite refreshing”. France’s Trad Magazine wrote: “Ses qualités de violoniste sont indéniables : grande précision et propreté du jeu” (His qualities as a violinist are undeniable: great precision and cleanness of playing). U.S.’s Dirty Linen commented that Kalman’s “one-man-show aspect is secondary to the excellent musical results.” Splendid noted that his solo album was “entertaining and musically satisfying.”
His extensive discography includes an array of traditional Hungarian folk music recordings released over several decades, such as Departure (Gyanta), Our Roots (Eletfa), Szép Szivárvány (with Natalia Zagyva), and Tiszta Szivvel (Csik Band). He has also appeared on several cross-genre studio recordings, including his solo album Exposed as well as his maverick collaborations with Crossing Paths (ethno jazz), Kruno Spisic (gypsy jazz), and Dallam-Dougou (West African/Hungarian fusion).
Since 2007, Kalman has performed primarily with the Gyanta Band, North America’s preeminent and most popular Hungarian folk music ensemble. In 1987, he co-founded the Eletfa Hungarian Folk Music Band, the continent’s first folk music group dedicated to playing Táncház (Hungarian village) material, and he remains engaged in building a legacy for Hungarian folk culture for future generations.
Kalman was born in New Jersey in 1973 to Hungarian immigrant parents who were actively involved in the perpetuation of their heritage throughout North America. At the age of five, Kalman was introduced to the violin through the Suzuki Method, and went on to study for a decade with Stanley Bednar at the Manhattan School of Music’s Preparatory Division, where he also studied piano and viola, in addition to his intensive work in jazz, composition and theory. He rose to become the School’s principal violist until his graduation.
In 1991, he was awarded a prestigious full scholarship from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh to perform with the Tamburitzans, the nation’s leading Eastern European music and dance troupe where he was exposed to Balkan and Romanian music. He toured nationally for four years while receiving a Bachelor’s in Science degree from Duquesne’s Business School, and continued to perform throughout North America after his return to New York in 1995 when he began his legal career.
Kalman has performed in venues such as Epcot Center (Orlando, Florida), Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), B.B. King’s Blues Club (NYC), Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), Joe’s Pub (NYC), Fiddler’s Elbow (London, UK), Knitting Factory (NYC), Rio Hotel & Casino (Las Vegas), Fono (Budapest), Place-des-Arts (Montréal), Bitter End (NYC), New Jersey State Theater, Drom Taberna (Toronto), Tonic (NYC), HotHouse (Chicago), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Trumpets Jazz Club (Montclair, NJ), Liberty State Park and the Statute of Liberty, Tennessee Performing Arts Center (Nashville), Living Arts Centre (Mississauga), Darke Hall (Regina), Town Hall (NYC), Heinz & Benedum Halls (Pittsburgh), World Trade Center (NYC), Henry Ford Museum (Detroit), and at the age of 14 with the Christmas Revels on Broadway (at Symphony Space).
Kalman has been a featured musician at several music festivals, including the Mondial Des Cultures (Drummondville, Quebec), St. Ceciliatide International Music Festival (London, UK), DjangoFest Chicago, Clearwater Revival Festival (New York), Smithsonian Folklife Festival (Washington, D.C.), Folklorama (Winnipeg), South American Hungarian Folkdance Festival in Caracas (Venezuela), Classical Mandolin Society of America Convention (Toronto), Salon De Virtuosi (New York), Millrace Festival (Cambridge, Ontario), International Flower Festival (Debrecen, Hungary), HungaroFest at Yonge-Dundas Square (Toronto), Budapest Spring and August 20th Festivals (Hungary), Eisteddfod Traditional Music Festival (Brooklyn), and scores of Hungarian music and dance festivals and events (including in Sao Paolo, New Orleans, Miami, Austin, San Diego, Cleveland, Calgary, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Edmonton).
He has also entertained celebrities, politicians and dignitaries at the United Nations, Hungarian Consulate in New York, the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., the New York and New Jersey Governors’ Mansions, the Hungarian Cultural Centre in London, and New York City’s Gracie Mansion.
Kalman has performed with many globally-known artists, including the Merita Halili & The Raif Hyseni Band, Mark Morris Dance Group, Márta Sebestyén, Kálmán Balogh Gypsy Band, Ismael Lumanovski (Smajko), Harmonia, Beyond the Pale, and Zlatne Uste. In 2003, he was plucked from a great number of violinists to audition for Cirque du Soleil by its casting department. He appeared on the soundtrack of The Maiden Danced to Death, shortlisted as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards in 2011.