About Us (page 1)
The members of the Gyanta, North America's post popular Hungarian folk bands, are drawn from the vibrant Canadian-Hungarian communities of Ontario and Quebec. They belong to the upper echelon of musicians, singers and dancers based in North America specializing in the unique and centuries-old folk music of the Hungarian villages located in Hungary, Transylvania (a part of western Romania), and Slovakia.
Its members have recorded extensively and performed at festivals, concerts, and Hungarian community-based events and “tanchaz”-es (Hungarian folkdance parties). Since its founding in 2006, the band has been featured at the Drummondville Folk Festival, Mondial des Cultures (North America’s largest world music and dance festival), toured the U.S. Midwest (including performances in Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit), performed at large-scale Hungarian folk festivals in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as the Cowboy Poetry Gethering in Elko, Nevada, and collaborated with several well-known artists from Hungary and Transylvania.
“Gyanta” means rosin in Hungarian, a word with double meaning to Hungarian folk musicians. Not only is rosin necessary to prepare the bow for playing the string instruments that forms the foundation of the top-shelf music of Gyanta, but the verb “rosining” also denotes the preparing of the musicians themselves – through some light-hearted and good-natured drinking from a top-shelf selection. It is this work-hard but play-hard Hungarian tradition which Gyanta seeks to preserve and share with its audiences.
