44th National Táncház Festival & Fair • 4–6 April 2025
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French folk music researcher and hurdy-gurdy player Claude Flagel died on February 25, 2020 at the age of 88. As a young man he moved from Paris to Belgium where he lived for the rest of life. He was a singer and virtuoso hurdy-gurdy player, performer and music teacher. He collected, researched, promoted and supported not only French and Walloon folk music, but folk music from all over the world. In the 1960s he discovered the folk music of the Carpathian Basin and befriended Novák Ferenc when the Bihari Ensemble was on tour in Belgium. Soon after, Flagel came to Hungary, where he was introduced to Hungarian folk musicians, singers, dancers, folk music researchers and instrument makers and went along on collecting trips to Transylvania. Over the years he released records of Hungarian folk music, made documentary films, invited Hungarian groups to Belgium to perform and organized Hungarian folk dance workshops in Belgium. His enthusiasm and support for Hungarian folk music culture was recognized in 2017 with the Bársony Mihály Award. By Novák Ferenc "Tata".