Musician bio
Edina Balczó is a UK based guitarist, composer, performer, and educator who was born in Hungary and lived there most of her life. She has resided in East London since 2008. Originally a self-taught guitarist who began playing at the age of 17, she later received private instruction from several well-known artists. In flamenco, she was taught by AndrasVarga, Francisco Antonio, and Ramon Ruiz. She learned music theory and improvisation from Adrien Miller and Jacob Quistgaard (who now hosts the very popular YouTube channel QuistJam). Edina has since developed her own original style, which is a mixture offlamenco, classical, percussion, and Spanish jazz.
She also hosts a popular YouTube channel, The Spanish guitar Hub, which has received millions of views and boasts tens of thousands of subscribers. Each week she uploads new guitar videos to this channel. Some of these are guitar lessons, some are solo guitar performances, and others are performances in collaboration with other musicians. In January 2009, she became a YouTube partner. Her popularity on YouTube resulted in an endorsement from GuitarPro, the software company that sells the GuitarPro tablature editor program. She is now listed among their international artists.
Her guitar duo, De fuego is well-known on the UK festival circuit and performed in more than 10 festivals each year since its inception. Some of those appearances included the Glastonbury festival,the Vegfest,the Secret Garden party, the Shambala festival, the Sziget fesztival (HU), and the Meadows in the Mountains festival(BG). They have also played in prestigious events such as the Commonwealth Nations Ceremony Awards and Music Mondays for Google (where Edina also performed as a solo guitarist). They often tour internationally visiting France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Italy,and Bulgaria. In additiontheyhave released two albums to date; Bluebird(2012) and Davide(2015). The latter CD is dedicated to Davide Lufrano Chaves, the first guitarist of the duo who passed away from Multiplex Myeloma blood cancer. His playing and presence had a profound influence on Edina’s life and her style of playing. The Davidealbum was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign which was conducted in the beginningof 2015. Both CDs were reviewed in prominent world music magazines, including Songlines, Fatea, R2,and others.
In 2015, Edina joined two additional bands. One of them, the trio Femmes Fusion, plays flamenco, tango and pop fusion with a violinist and a singer. They primarily perform famous songs in a flamenco/rumba style and tour throughout the UK. She also performs in Desperado’s, a mariachi duo with a singer/guitarist covering traditional Mexican music.
Edina appeared and played her guitar in a documentary film, called A Technicolor Dream (2008, Eagle Vision); composed the entire music score for the short movie 8 Drops of Life (2011, I am film) with pianist G. Sarvary; appeared in a TV program called Guitar Star (2015, Sky Arts) which advertised the show using her guitar playing with another guitarist. She has also appeared in several advertisements for the Camino Spanish restaurant (2015), where she is currently the resident guitarist.
Edina appeared and played her guitar in a documentary film, called A Technicolor Dream (2008, Eagle Vision); composed the entire music score for the short movie 8 Drops of Life (2011, I am film) with pianist G. Sarvary; appeared in a TV program called Guitar Star (2015, Sky Arts) which advertised the show using her guitar playing with another guitarist. She has also appeared in several advertisements for the Camino Spanish restaurant (2015), where she is currently the resident guitarist.