LACZÓ, ZOLTÁN VINCE (b.1964)

Zoltán Vince Laczó was born on October 25, 1964, in Győr, Hungary, where he completed his primary and secondary schools. He first began to play piano and guitar, but officially, as a music school student, the contrabass became his main musical instrument with the bass guitar as a natural compliment. In his teens, Zoltán simultaneously played music in jazz-rock bands as well as in the school chamber orchestra. This dual used of his instrument has remained with him.

 

Zoltán continued his musical studies (1982-84) at the Bartók Béla College of Musical Art, in Budapest, taking his final exam in the College of State Ballet Institute. Between 1984 and 1988 he was a member of several bands—the Rock Theatre Band, and other jazz and rock bands. He did his military service in the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Zrínyi Miklós Military Academy.

 

In 1991, Zoltán graduated as a jazz artist from the Liszt Ferenc College of Musical Art Jazz Faculty. His major teachers were Balázs Berkes (contrabass), Károly Friedrich (orchestration), and János Gonda (music theory). From 1991-1994, he worked intermittently as a theatre musician in Germany but his desire to become a composer peaked and led him to do post-graduate study with János Gonda and István Bogár. In 1994, he obtained a composing scholarship from the Berklee College of Music so he could expand his knowledge through a short course in London.

 

Zoltán Vince Laczó’s first important composition was an arrangement of Jónás könyve (Jonas’ Book), a rock-opera performed at the 1991 Budapest Spring Festival. It was published and recorded in CD format in 2000.

His first "real" performance took place in 1995—"Éjszaka" ("Night"), a choral setting of a poem by Miklós Radnóti. The premiere performance took place at the Music Academy Hall by the choir of the Institute.

 

Between 1994 and 1997, Zoltán became a composer of nature and instructional films and series of Vi-Dok Studio. The films made in Vi-Dok studio were shown in Szív Tv and M-Sat channels. When the two channels went bank- rupt, his working possibility discontinued. Because of this situation, he became a music teacher in 1997 at the Lisznyay Szabó Gábor Music School Veresegyház.

 

Between 1997 and 1999, Zoltán completed the 5 semestered wind band upper master course organised by the Hungarian Institute of Adult Education. His most influential teachers there were Professors István Bogár and Conductor László Marosi. Moreover, he could attend more international courses held by famous foreign professors, eg. Bob Gifford, Ronald Johnson, and Jan-Magnus Dahle.

 

Zoltán became the artistic leader and conductor of Red One House Big Band from 1999-2001 which consisted of amateur musicians from Gödöllő, Dány and Veresegyház, and jazz teachers of the F. Chopin Music School of Gödöllő.

 

After 2000, his musical search led him to get deeply involved in religious music and the Catholic Church, so he applied to become a teacher of religion major of Sapientia Theological College in 2003. He got his degree in 2007. The topic of his thesis was the history of and the possible teaching methods of religious music lead by Dr. Lukács Áment.

 

Hungarian Catholic Radio was founded in 2004, and Zoltán Laczó became its musical edi- tor and producer.

An avid learner, he took the TELC B1 exam of English in 2007.

 

He is a member of Hungarian Composer's Union, Hungarian Jazz Federation, and Society of Creative Musicians.

 

He has created works for orchestra, band, choirs, and instrumental chamber groups.