BUDAPEST CAFE ORCHESTRA

Tickets £20

THE GHOULASH GANG ARE BACK!

Following their rousing performance in February 2026, the Maestros of Music and Mischief are returning to the Electric Palace to sweep you away once again with their collection of rollicking dances, grief-stricken ballads, folk anthems and -- who knows -- a dash of East European reggae!

Budapest Café Orchestra are

CHRISTIAN GARRICK – violin, darbuka

MURRAY GRAINGER – accordion

KELLY CANTLON – double bass

ADRIAN ZOLOTUHIN – guitar, saz, balalaika, domra

In 2009 Christian Garrick established the refreshingly unconventional and snappily attired Budapest Café Orchestra with the intention to present a broad range of music from all over the world in the most entertaining and fun way. BCO perform all their music from memory. Combining their trademark wit and charm, audiences are left tingling with warmth, delight and amazement.

BCO play an average of 75 shows per annum. Since their inception they have recorded one album every year and in January 2025 made their 16th waxing Goulash Supernova. BCO are frequent guests on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

Christian Grarick has worked with artists such as Dame Cleo Lane, Wynton Marsalis, Nigel Kennedy, Julian Joseph, Dolly Parton, All About Eve, Van Morrison, Luka Bloom, Martin Taylor, Bryan Ferry, the Danish Radio Band & Caro Emerald. He has made tours of the Far East and Australia with guitarist John Etheridge in a tribute to Stephane Grappelli. He performed twice for the late Princess Diana. In a separate royal event he played for the Queen, Queen Mother and relations at Buckingham Palace for the then Prince Charles' 50th birthday celebrations. On receiving a solo fiddle rendition of Happy Birthday Prince Charles asked Christian to rewrite "that horrible old tune", a request Christian met some twenty years later much to the current King's pleasure. Christian is also professor of jazz violin at Guildhall School of Music, Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London.

Adrian Zolotuhin teaches school-age musicians of all standards and is curator of the fabled Imperial Balalaika Orchestra of Overton. Murray Grainger is one of the UK’s most in-demand accordionistas often working with Opera North and acclaimed folk traditionalists The Haar. Kelly Cantlon is a veteran bassist who was once a Vagabond of Northern Soul icons Jimmy James & The Vagabonds.

 

"Not so much a band name as a whole genre of its own, Budapest Café Orchestra embraces an encyclopaedia of music and

mischief." SCOTSMAN

“Your music is really great.” Helena Bonham Carter

"Their arrangements are brilliant, their improvisations inspired. Their humour and, on occasion, sheer silliness hides a real brilliance of execution. In every bit of the material the charming irony hides really serious and focussed music-making. This is entertainment of a high order." Sir Roger Norrington

“The music is magic in their hands.” Sean Rafferty BBC Radio 3

“Absolutely acoustically electrifying!” Time Out