Eduardo “Edi” Bonapartian | Advisory Board Member | Argentina
Edi was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and he is a psychologist by training. He is of Hungarian origin on his mother’s side, and Armenian on his father’s side. After spending a year and a half in Hungary, he took over the management of the Regös Folk Dance Ensemble in 2003. He is currently the group’s Artistic Director. Over the course of his life, Edi has had the good fortune of connecting with many folk dance teachers. On multiple occasions, he has visited different parts of the Carpathian Basin, in order to experience the authentic folk life of his culture. These experiences have had tremendous impact on his life.
The Regös Folk Dance Ensemble was founded in 1958. For Edi, the chance to lead the group is a source of pride (and responsibility). His goal is to continue to sustain the Hungarian culture in Argentina and to inspire the larger region (i.e. South America) to love and appreciate folk dancing. Although Edi lives far from the Motherland, he believes in creating a vibrant Hungarian community and network through folk dance and music. Every two years, communities and their ensembles in South America gather for a folk dance meeting. Despite the logistical challenges of organizing such an event, Edi believes that building bridges between folk dance enthusiasts, especially the youth, is transformative for everyone involved.
Panni (Anna) De Cheke Qualls | Co-Executive Director
Panni is originally from Budapest, and attended a music magnet school in Budapest. She played the violin and folk danced (and hated folk dancing because it was required). She and her parents came to the States when she was a teenager. Without a Hungarian community nearby, she pursued contra, ballroom, Latin and swing dancing – along with tennis.
She reconnected with her Hungarian roots in the DC/Virginia/Maryland community. Her first ensemble experience was through the Tisza Ensemble (with son Leó). She currently dances with the Csürdöngölö Ensemble in New Jersey and leads the DC Cserkész Bátori Néptáncegyüttes. Panni believes that dance and music can be life-changing and liberating. She is committed to sharing this gift with anyone who cares to listen – especially the next generation.
In her professional life, Panni is a chemist by training who always loved to write/create. Starting out as an educator and school administrator, she transitioned to program/project management, development/philanthropy to communications/marketing. She has served in various leadership roles over the years – from non-profit organizations to higher education. She currently works at Howard University’s Graduate School.
Attila Egyedi | Advisory Board Member | United States
Originally from Transylvania, Attila moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015 after living in Hungary for 10 years. Shortly after arriving, he joined the Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Ensemble, despite having little prior experience in folk dance. He began learning the brácsa in 2018 and has attended TiTiTábor multiple times to expand his skills as both a musician and a dancer.
Following the COVID pandemic, Attila became more involved in the management of Eszterlánc, helping to organize táncház (dance events), folk music workshops, concerts, and performances. Since 2023, he has served as the Business/Managing Director of the dance group. In his professional life, Attila has worked as a Software Developer for the School of Medicine at Stanford University since moving to the U.S. He also spent 1.5 years working in the IT industry at Amazon Web Services.
Attila’s two main hobbies are music and teaching. He has been part of several Hungarian pop/rock bands in the Bay Area, most recently with Crossroads Band, where he sings and plays guitar. As part of his musical journey, he organized the “István, a király”-day event in 2023 and the “Magyar Dal Napja” (Hungarian Song Day) in 2024. Additionally, he teaches folk songs and ukulele in the Hungarian Scout program, where he also assists with folk dance instruction.
Liz Kovach | Advisory Board Member | Canada
Hungarian culture has been a lifelong love and passion for Lizzie and currently serves as the co-coordinator for the Hungary Pannonia Pavilion and president of the Hungarian Kapisztrán Folk Ensemble of Winnipeg. She has been a member of Kapisztrán for the past 42 years when she first started dancing. During that time she has had the opportunity to participate in countless Hungarian Folk Festivals in Western Canada and the largest multicultural Folk Festival known as Folklorama in her home town Winnipeg. Her passion for cultural preservation has driven her to not only lead the group but also support the passion of others interested to take on larger roles as it takes a village to build community. Bridging the generations to ensure knowledge and traditions get passed on is really important to Lizzie and building this collaboration is key to ensuring legacies get passed on.
In her professional life she has spent the past 10+ years leading not for profit and charitable organizations. She has served as the president of the WRLA for the past 8 years, and under her leadership, has charted a new path for the Association. She is committed to increasing awareness of the industry and attracting talent to work for its members and building the WRLA’s relationship with government and industry stakeholder groups. Her passion for strengthening the industry, member by member, community by community, keeps her inspired.
In her spare time outside of her work and volunteer commitments she also enjoys spending time out at the lake with her husband Jeff, stepdaughter Teagan and family puppy dog Lucy. Swimming, running, cycling, fishing and chopping wood are among her favorite past times and hobbies.
Öcsi (Kálmán) Magyar, Jr | Co-Executive Director
Öcsi is passionately engaged in many activities geared towards preserving, sharing, and building a legacy for Hungarian folk culture for future generations, particularly in North America. He co-founded the HFA in 2023. He is also the creator and host of Táncház Talk, the world’s only English-language program/podcast focusing primarily on Hungarian folk music. He was a longtime Advisory Board Member for the American Hungarian Folklore Centrum, the HFA’s predecessor, and in 2003, he produced Visszhang (Echo) for Hungaria Records, a compilation of Hungarian folk bands from North America, the first of its kind outside of Hungary.
From a young age, Öcsi studied at folk music camps and seminars throughout the United States and Hungary. His early music mentors included the legendary Transylvanian fiddler Sándor Fodor “Neti” and Béla Halmos, one of the Godfathers of the Hungarian folk music revival movement. He studied folk dancing with the likes of Sándor Timár and Zoltán Zsuráfszky. In 1987, he co-founded the Életfa Hungarian Folk Music Band, one of the United States’ treasured assets of Hungarian folk music. He has continued to perform with Canada-based Gyanta, North America’s most popular Hungarian folk music group, after moving to Toronto in 2007. As part of his continuing efforts to advocate for and build a legacy for Hungarian culture, Öcsi has given many folklore-related scholarly lectures and presentations, including at the Institute of Musicology – Research Centre for the Humanities in Budapest, the Hungarian Open University (Chicago), and at conferences organized by the American Hungarian Educators Association. He has also taught violin and ensemble classes at many camps, seminars and workshops, including Csipke Hungarian Folkdance and Music Camp in Michigan, Balkan Folk Music & Dance Workshops in New York and California (Mendocino), and at the American Hungarian Folklore Centrum‘s Folkdance and Music Symposia in Pennsylvania. For more information on Öcsi, visit www.kalmanmagyar.com.
Dóra Máté | Advisory Board Member | United Kingdom
Dóra Máté was born in Kaposvár, Hungary, and moved to the United Kingdom in 2016. She has been involved in Hungarian folk dance since childhood and joined the Hunique Dance Ensemble London in 2017. Since March 2025, she has served as the ensemble’s director, leading a community of more than 30 dancers alongside a four-member leadership team.
Dóra began dancing in her childhood in Kaposvár, where she trained at the Együd Árpád Arts School. Her artistic interests have always extended beyond dance: she sang in a choir, was a member of a theatre group, studied piano, and has been pursuing photography as a hobby. These experiences have shaped her view of folk tradition as a complex, interdisciplinary artistic system, and have helped her develop a sensitive understanding of the connections between music, movement, and shared community experience.
In addition to directing the ensemble, Dóra teaches the beginner dance group, where many participants encounter Hungarian folk dance for the first time. She also plays an active role in organising children’s and adult dance house events (táncház) and community singing gatherings (dalárda), creating welcoming spaces where members can connect through music and dance. She is also responsible for managing the ensemble’s costume collection, an essential but often behind-the-scenes role.
Dóra actively fosters collaboration with other Hungarian cultural organisations and communities in London and across the United Kingdom. Through these connections, she works to strengthen the wider Hungarian community and support the continued presence of Hungarian folk traditions within the diaspora.
Professionally, Dóra works as a Learning & Development Manager, where she leads professional training programmes, learning initiatives, and development strategies. She holds a Master’s degree in Archaeology from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
János Szűcs | Co-Executive Director
János is an experienced educator, master folk dance pedagogue, László Vásárhelyi prize-winner and Örökös Aranysarkantyús dancer, Nívó prize-winning choreographer and former artistic director of the Bocskai Nèptance Ensemble of Hajdúböszörmény. He is currently a teacher at the Nyíregyház Art High School, and co-founder of the Hungarian Free University in Chicago, and member of the Hungarian Folklife Association’s leadership team.
Tomi (Tomohiko) Yamaguchi | Advisory Board Member | Japan
Tomi started his dance career with international folk dancing at Japan’s Kyoto University in 1995. After taking a workshop with Sándor Timar in 1997, Tomi was hooked on Hungarian folk dancing. He eventually joined Tokyo’s Odoribe (meaning “dance-teller”) Hungarian Folk Dance Ensemble. Tomi also plays the 3-stringed brácsa (kontra). He has supported multiple Hungarian folklife activities in Japan, including events at Hungarian Embassy in Tokyo, initiatives to increase táncház programs and gatherings to promote Hungarian culture.
Tomi has a longstanding connection to the Hungarian folk dance community in North America. He first experience was with Sándor Timar in 1998 – he attended a workshop held by the Csárdás Ensemble in Austin, Texas. When he was assigned to Wichita, Kansas through his company in 2021, it was a major turning point in his life and that of his wife Rie. They were able to join the Borozda Hungarian Ensemble in Chicago.
Tomi became involved with the Hungarian Folklife Association in 2022 and through that began to better understand the Hungarian diaspora in North America. He and Rie traveled to various folk dance events in New Brunswick, Seattle, Dallas, San Diego and Kansas City. Tomi hopes to explore programs that continue to connect folk dance and music lovers throughout the globe.