PÉTER ÉRI

PÉTER ÉRI was born in 1953 in Budapest, Hungary. As a ten-year old child he won the first prize of a dance competition with dancing the Lads's Dance of Kalotaszeg, accompanied by his school-fellow Andras Schiff, the world-famous pianist of today.
His step-father, Dr György Martin, the famous etnographer brought the child Éri to his trips where he collected the Hungarian traditional dances and instrumental music and consequentially Éri as a child made his first connections with living musical and dance traditions. When he was 14, he became the dancer of the Bartók Dance Ensamble where he was an active dancer for six years. His interest in the music was continuous, he became the bass-player of the first Hungarian revival band, the Sebő Group. In this time the singer of this band was Márta Sebestyén, as a young girl.
Meanwhile when the Muzsikás was established in 1973, Éri became the guest-musican of the band, from 1978 he became the full member.
Éri graduated in the Eötvös University of Budapest as an etnographer and philologist of Rumanian language and literature.
He plays the viola, the three-thring "kontra", mandolin and differnet kind of flutes.
Éri is married, he has a son and a doughter, both of them play music. His wife is an artistic designer.