Gábor KISS - double bass

Gábor Kiss was born in Budapest, 1952. When he was seven years old he began to play the violoncello. At the age of 13 he was enrolled at the Symphonical Orchestra of the St. Stephen's High School. He had his final exam in the same institution. He was 17 when he decided to learn to play the double bass.

Two years after graduation, he was admitted to the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, where he majored playing the contrabass. It was during these years that he started to work in theaters, and took up the bass guitar as another instrument.

After he received his diploma he a became member of the 25th Theater in 1977, and Kormorán, a popular Hungarian group which was founded at that time.

In 1980 as a freelancer, he founded the Budapest Ragtime Band with one of his friends. This band was the first of it's kind in Hungary. At the same time he was working with many jazz-folk bands.

He met Jávori Fegya in a Hungarian theater in 1986, and they went on to found the Theatrum Dixieland Band with five other collegues. The group broke up after 2 years due to orginizational problems.

From 1988 he worked abroad, spending one year in Italy and three in Germany.In 1992 he met Fegya again and since then is member of the Budapest Klezmer Band.