Obituary: Péter Éri (1953 – 2023)

Peter Éri played kontra (the three-string viola that adds harmony and rhythm beneath the fiddle) as well as mandolin, various flutes and backing vocals. He was rarely without a broad-brimmed hat.

Éri’s step-father György Martin was one of Hungary’s important folk dance researchers and practitioners and his mother, Jolán Borbély, was also an ethnographer and folk dance teacher. They took their son on field trips through Hungary from five years old and to Transylvania when he was ten. “I experienced the magic of seeing what I had only heard from recordings come to life in front of my eyes. And village life itself, with all the traditions still alive, where everyday life was like it was 100 years ago, was a huge experience for a city boy.” It had the impact of rock ’n’ roll, he said.

He started as a double-bass player in the Sebő Ensemble, the very first Hungarian dance house group in the early 1970s, and then became a guest musician with Muzsikás when they started in 1973 and a full member in 1978. After their recordings were licensed to Joe Boyd’s Hannibal label in the mid-1980s they started regularly touring Western Europe and the US. Éri played on all of the ten or so albums Muzsikás recorded, and live with the group at Songlines Encounters Festival in 2022.

As well as playing with Muzsikás, Éri presented a folk programme called Népzene hatàrok nélkül (Folk Music without Borders) on Hungarian radio for many years. Muzsikás will play the Sur Jahan festival in India (Kolkata and Goa, February 2024) without Éri. He will be very much missed.