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Dr. József Terék is a performer, composer, music director, folk music researcher awarded with the Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit, a non-academic public body member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian Ethnographic Society, and the Music Department of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, an awardee of the Sino-Phil Asia International Peace Awards and the Ex Libris Award, a holder of 100 world music championship titles, and a world music record holder. He started his career in 1992, which was launched from his native village, Tápiószele in the Pest County. Since then, he has toured countless stages in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania, representing Hungary in 42 countries at nearly 150 tours at world music festivals, theatres, universities, world competitions for composer, professional conferences, and protocol embassy events. His main work is the research and collection of the folk song and folk music materials of the County of Pest, as well as the publication of cultural heritage preservation publications on CDs and in books, as well as the innovative national and international promotion of our Hungaricum (uniquely Hungarian) musical instrument, the tárogató. Since 2008, this work aimed at saving cultural values has resulted in 70 editions and countless other publications, with the help of which our vocal values can be re-learned, taught, and acquired for everyone, thus ensuring the possibility of passing them on to generations yet to come. In addition, his compositions and musical arrangements are constantly being published in sheet music and song books and on CDs. At the Doctoral School of History and Ethnography of the University of Debrecen in 2023, he successfully defended his 1,280-page PhD thesis titled “Folk Songs and Folk Music of the Tápió Region in the 20th Century”, which had been prepared as a result of his 15-year-long research work along River Tápió in his native land.
His personal motto is as follows: “Let’s give back to the villages what belongs to the villages.” More than 100 of his compositions have been written for the tárogató. This is a unique innovative musical art and compositional achievement in terms of expanding the classical repertoire of the Hungarian instrument. Dr. József Terék has recently become a world record holder in music. He won first place as a solo artist in 100 international music competitions between March 15, 2021 and June 15, 2023. The world record was certified by the Official World Records on March 27, 2024. With the outstanding cultural results of the
unique domestic and international promotion of the tárogató, he is one of the most innovative and authentic representatives of our Hungarian instrument.