A Minute With: Hungarian violinist Kelemen – proud of Roma roots

 

LONDON, Sept 23: Hungarian violinist Barnabas Kelemen has studied with the late virtuoso Isaac Stern and won Gramophone magazine’s award for best chamber music CD of 2013, but what he is really proud of is his Roma heritage. Kelemen, who was in London this week to accept the prestigious Gramophone award for his disc of Bartok violin sonatas and to appear with his wife Katalin Kokas in the Kelemen Quartet at Wigmore Hall yesterday, credits his late Roma violinist grandfather as an inspirational figure in his  life.

(agencies)