Márta Sebestyén


Márta Sebestyén is a Hungarian folk vocalist, composer and actress.

Early life

Sebestyén was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her mother is a composer, and was a music student of Zoltán Kodály. Her father was an economist and author. When Sebestyén was seven years old, her father, returning from a trip to the U.S. as a visiting professor, brought home a large collection of ethnic music recordings from the Smithsonian Institution. Sebestyén was educated at Miklós Radnóti Grammar School, Budapest.

Career

Sebestyén is a founding member of Hungarian folk group Muzsikás. She is known for adaptations of Somogy and Erdély folk songs, some of which appear in Deep Forest's Boheme album, which received the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 1995. She has also adapted Hindi, Yiddish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovak folk songs into traditional Hungarian style. She sang in and contributed material to the album Kaddish by Towering Inferno. She also sang "Rivers" on the multiple artist album Big Blue Ball released in 2008.
Sebestyén's song "Szerelem, szerelem", performed with Muzsikás, featured in the movie The English Patient. Three more songs she recorded with Muzsikás appeared in the Japanese anime film Only Yesterday by Studio Ghibli: "Teremtés", "Hajnali nóta", and "Fuvom az énekem". Costa-Gavras' 1989 film Music Box featured the opening half of Sebestyén's song "Mária altatója".
On 1 June 2010, Sebestyén was awarded the UNESCO Artist for Peace title.

Influence

was a fan of Sebestyén, citing her influence on several occasions, most notably in an article for The Guardian newspaper in January 2004. Cutler selected two of her songs for a CD released in 1999 containing his favourite musical tracks. Cutler also chose songs by Sebestyén for his 1991 BBC Radio series, Cutler the Lax.

Selected discography

As primary artist