Tcha Limberger is recognised as one of the leading figures in Carpathian folk music. He performs all over the world as a soloist in formations that bring together major musicians such as Stochelo Rosenberg, Angelo Debarre, Fabrizio Cassol, Sebastien Giniaux, Roby Lakatos, Evan Christopher and Fapy Lafertin, while at the same time working on his own projects. The jazz ensemble he tours with as vocalist, violinist and guitarist, The Tcha Limberger Trio, features Mozes Rosenberg, Dave Kelbie and Sébastien Girardot. He is a founder member of the string quintet Les Violons de Bruxelles, a group that performs jazz standards by Django Reinhardt and his own original compositions. As well as performing many different folk styles on his violin, he sings in nine languages. He is a member of the Trio Tatavla, in which he sings and improvises in Greek; he leads the Budapest Gypsy Orchestra and the Kalotaszeg Trio, singing in Hungarian, Russian and Romanian. His inexhaustible interest in different cultures naturally influences his jazz improvisation style in terms of both singing and instrumental playing.
Born into a family of musicians, Tcha Limberger learned his first guitar chords at the age of six. His grandfather was a violinist who led the ensemble called The Piottos, and his father Vivi Limberger was rhythm guitarist for the band Waso alongside Fapy Lafertin, Tcha’s cousin and perhaps the most famous gypsy guitarist since Django Reinhardt. Limberger has always been fascinated by traditional music from all over the world and has collected a large number of instruments and recordings. For a long time he led a group of Belgian musicians playing the music of the Bolivian Aymara and Quechua Indians. Inspired by the clarinettist of a New Orleans band in which he played the banjo, he began playing the clarinet and studied New Orleans jazz and Budapest Magyar Nota. He also began to work with the Het Muzieklod theatre company and the Belgian composer Dick Vanderharst, who introduced him to contemporary classical music and modern jazz. At the age of seventeen, inspired by his grandfather’s stories and recordings of the Hungarian violinist Toki Horvath, he began to play the violin. He then left The Piottos and formed a trio with his father and uncle, Bisque Limberger. While he was on tour in Budapest, he decided to learn the Magyar Nota style of violin playing. He learned Hungarian and at the age of 23 spent 18 months in Budapest studying with the great violinist Bela Horvath.
