Félix Lajkó

Félix Lajkó was born in Bačka Topola (Hungarian: Topolya, Serbian Cyrillic: Бачка Топола), a town in the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Voivodina region of present-day Serbia on 17 December 1974 (the same day Beethoven was born a little more than two hundred years before). Despite loving music dearly, no member of his ethnic Hungarian family had chosen music a profession before. Having started out with playing the zither, Lajkó quit the musical high school of Subotica at sophomore grade to go to Budapest with a borrowed violin and become a member of the Dresch Quartet. He has been commuting between Budapest, Hungary and Subotica, Serbia ever since, representing and culturally connecting Hungary and his native Voivodina region.

“My music is essentially based on the sensitivity and variability of my instrument. I do not play any so-called new-style music; I just have my way in improvising and composing. I do not differentiate between musical styles and trends; I play folk, classical, rock, blues, jazz, and improvised tunes alike.”

Lajkó has played together with a large number of well-known bands and musicians. He has had several concerts with Alexander Balanescu and Boban Marković’s brass gipsy band. His violin music captivated musically sensitive audiences in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Brașov, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Frankfurt, Lyon, Bordeaux, Venice, Verona, Edinburgh, London, Tallinn, Vienna, and New York.

Often referred to as the Devil’s Violinist, the Paganini of Voivodina, or a child prodigy, once he is on stage with an instrument – be it the violin or the zither – Lajkó is capable of doing anything, of guarding his audience to a world that opens up only to those born with a special talent. Félix Lajkó handles music rather impulsively. There is no need to define the style or genre of his music, since it is exactly about the opposite: transgressing styles, accepting the inexplicable.