Ferenc “Feri” Sebő has passed away. For those in the Tanchaz movement, we will know him as my mentor Bela Halmos’ first kontra player, and namesake of the Tanchaz Movement’s first-ever band. But more than that, he became a composer, a conveyor of the past and what is possible in the future, and a champion and mentor to many musicians, dancers, singers, and folklore lovers. His death comes as a sudden shock, as just 2 days ago he was on the stage at the Tanchaztalalkozo in Budapest giving some remarks about our Transylvanian music and song hero Zoltan Kallos. Many people have given very classy and loving remarks about Feri’s passing, but here is one from a surprising source, Budapest’s Mayor Gergely Karacsony (not a usual “folk-ky”), which I thought to share: “How will we “Sebő” from now on? Only the very greatest have their names turned into verbs: at first it was meant as a stigma, then it became a badge of pride, because the action derived from Ferenc Sebő’s name came to mean singing, dancing, poetry, tradition, and community-building. To “Sebő” is happiness, to “Sebő” is value, to “Sebő” is, in the noblest sense of the word, Hungarian. For as Ferenc Sebő said: “Our Hungarianness is a linguistic and cultural community, and that is what we must protect.” Few have protected it better than he did; today, that “revolution” he launched by creating the táncház movement has even become part of the world’s cultural heritage. “It wasn’t a big thing,” he said: “our method was really just that we loved it very much—and that drew many people to us.” It drew me in too, and many others; we owe him so much for having been able to live it through him. For we know from him—and his extraordinary life’s work proves it—that “tradition is not something to be preserved, for it is not sick; not something to be guarded, for it is not a prisoner; our traditions can only survive if we live them.” We do right if we never stop “Sebőing”—with him, with his voice, his music, his sung poems—but now without him. May Ferenc Sebő rest in peace.”

Congratulations to Uszturu, perhaps the world’s most authentic, fantastic-sounding, experienced, and well-traveled Hungarian folk music revival bands, for being awarded the “Tanchaz Award” from the Tanchaz Egyesulet and Hagyomanyok Haza in 2026. See https://atempo.sk/hirek/98-hirek/49463-ok-kapjak-a-tanchaz-dijat-es-a-tanchaz-ermeket-2026-ban.html