Egon Póka could have been successful anywhere in the world, but he played his music for us Hungarians
01. 10. 2021.
In a message sent to the family of bass guitarist Egon Póka, who died recently aged 68, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered his condolences and wished them much strength, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief informed the Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday, on World Music Day, on which his fans, fellow musicians, friends and acquaintances are paying tribute to the memory of Egon Póka in the courtyard of the Castle Garden Bazaar.

In his message, Mr Orbán wrote when a great artist leaves this world, time stops for a moment, and everything else lends its place to sadness and remembrance. “An excellent bass guitarist was born in Kőbánya almost seventy years ago, someone who already played music aged four and could have been successful anywhere in the world. He was invited to Switzerland to play with a band that later also toured the United States, but he stayed here, and played his music for us Hungarians: brewery workers, long-haired suburban guys in jeans, university students dreaming about a better world, everyone who was born in a storm and was looking forward to better weather.”

The Prime Minister said for Egon Póka music was not a job, but a passion, even a mission which was fulfilled through the establishment of the Kőbánya Music Studio where he built a community of talented young people who received from him, in addition to professional knowledge and skills of the highest standards, the model of a dependable human life.

Egon Póka left us. We received much from him, and what he left to us is enduring, valuable and unsurpassable, Mr Orbán wrote in conclusion.