Artist database

Béla Ágoston was born on May 17, 1966, in Szarvas. Jazz and folk music entered his life when he was around 16-17 years old. He graduated in 1992 from the Janus Pannonius University of Pécs with a degree in voice, music, and choral conducting, and in 2012 he completed a master’s degree in voice, music, and choral conducting at Eötvös Loránd University. He studied under such renowned artists as violinist Miklós Molnár, Ferenc Sára, and Lajos Kozák, founder of the Volunteer Firefighters’ Band. As a recognized folk and jazz musician, he has appeared as a multi-instrumentalist on albums released to date. In his own ensembles and regular bands, he is primarily heard playing the alto and tenor saxophones, as well as the bass clarinet. He has performed traditional Hungarian and Jewish folk music, as well as arrangements, in the bands of Kati Szvorák (Kati Szvorák and the Kőfaragók) and Ferenc Kiss (Etnofon Music Association, Odessa Klezmer Band), playing the bagpipes, clarinet and flutes. The dorombe was also featured on several occasions during his concerts. His solo performances and his collaboration with the band Budbudas represented new frontiers in his musical experimentation. With his own band, the Ágoston Trio, he released his first album, titled Lakni, lakni, in 1999. In 2017, a 12-part online CD series titled Ágoston Béla JazzYear was released by Hunnia Records. In 2000, he recorded an ethno-jazz album featuring songs by Kispál és a Borz (Meles meles). He has also recorded several albums with the Dél-alföldi Saxophone Ensemble (Esthajnal; Kalamonais; Tótágas) and the Ágoston Trio (Lakni, lakni; Jazztarisznya). He also appears on several CDs released by BMC Records: Dél-alföldi Saxophone Ensemble’s 2004 album Tótágas and Knutdut Men’s 2016 album Dunno.

He distilled his artistic creed and the driving force behind his work into the concept of “music bridging” — which breaks down the boundaries between genres — and it was in this spirit that he became an indispensable figure in our popular music scene. Throughout his career, he was a member of such prestigious ensembles as the Dél-alföldi Saxophone Ensemble, Vízöntő, Kampec Dolores, and the Etnofon Music Association, and in the meantime led some twenty bands — most of which are still active today (Ágoston Trio, Agostones, Zuboly, Ágoston Frió, Ágoston Kártett, Ágoston Béla Quartet, Ágoston Küntett, Ágoston Béla Orchestra, Etnofaun, Bead Duo, Mi az ÁB-RE, Adolphe Sax Consort, Pipatórium, 1st Hungarian-Chinese Orchestra, Tócsni and Flódni, Cosmotics, Versi Varsa, Gauditorium, East Side Jazz Company). He also performed with, among others, Mecseki Free, the Grencsó Collective, Ad Filmtablet, the Bujdosó Béla Big Band, Bélabábend, and Monoton Coctail. The evolution of Béla Ágoston’s musical journey can be traced through numerous Hungarian jazz clubs and festivals. He has frequently performed at the Opus Jazz Club, primarily with three groups: the Ágoston QRtet, Knutdut Men, and the Kerub Trio.

As a composer, he has written the music for at least one hundred puppet theater plays, including Rumcájsz, which ran for years at the Budapest Puppet Theater, and Kuflik, which was performed at the Béla Kövér Puppet Theater in Szeged. He co-wrote the score for the 2006 film The Possibilities of Friendship, directed by Gábor Ferenczi. He composed the music for Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film The Mysterious Lodger, which premiered as part of the 2014 CAFe Budapest Festival; the piece was performed live by his eight-piece ensemble at the premiere. In 2013, he won the award for Best Film Score at the European Animation Film Festival in Kecskemét for the music he composed for the animated series Kormos Tales, commissioned by director Zsolt Richly. In 2022, at the request of the Nógrád Dance Ensemble, he composed the music for the centennial celebration program of Salgótarján.

In addition to his career as a performer and composer, he also works as an educator. He was a saxophone teacher at the Jan Albrecht Academy of Music in Selmecbánya (starting in 2013) and also taught in the music therapy program at the Gusztáv Bárczy College of Special Education. Since September 2025, he has been a music teacher at the Budapest-Fasori Evangelical High School.