The road that Balázs Horváth took to eventually finding his real instrument, the double-bass, wasn’t as straightforward as one would expect from one of the best and most frequented jazz double-bassists of Hungary today. His love for music started with jazz as a teenager, which made him pick up the bass guitar, and that’s what he went on to study at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, until his teacher convinced him to change to the double-bass.

During his academic years he also did several study trips abroad: in Italy he studied from Dave Clark, in France from Riccardo del Fra, in Graz from Wayne Darling, and in the Netherlands he completed a masters course led by Clemens van der Feen. These trips showed him a broader spectrum in jazz, and the different local scenes and musicians inspired him to try and learn lots of new things in music. He has collaborated on nearly 50 albums, with such renowned musicians and projects as Mihály Borbély, Fekete-Kovács Quintet, János Ávéd, Gábor Horváth Tojás, Károly Gáspár and Marjolaine Reymond Quartet. He claims that in order to be a successful double-bassist, one needs not only the necessary musical skills, motivation and diligence, but also intelligence, honest self-reflection, self-awareness and good social skills. He used to teach at music schools as well as privately; nowadays he prefers to perform and record only, but he accepted our invitation to tutor at the camp as he enjoys working with teenagers and also has strong bonds to Lake Balaton.