Hungarian folk music in the Netherlands

During the start of last century folk music from East European countries and especially Hungarian folk music became popular in the Netherlands. Several Hungarian orchestras came over to play in Dutch restaurants. Some of these musicians even stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of their live like Lajos Veres, (YouTube) and the Hungarian and later Dutch cimbalom player Timi Balázs (image and mpr below) Also famous was the pianist Sandor Vidak (YouTube) usually playing in the Kurhaus bar in Scheveningen.

This was also the period when Dutch students of several Universities started to play this music. As a result to day more Dutch amateur orchestras are playing these Magyar Nótak than in any other country of Western Europe. See the website Cimbalom Dutch platform. Several professional musicians, like the earlier mentioned Timi Balazs enjoyed it to train Dutch students in playing Hungarian folk songs.