Hungary’s most popular male choral ensemble was founded in 2002 by Tamás Bubnó, Meritorious Artist and winner of the Liszt Prize. At first the group specialized in the remarkably diverse music of the Byzantine Christian Rites and achieved success with its repertory in Hungary and abroad alike.
The choral group started working on the Hungarian male choir repertoire from the beginning through the male choir liturgy of Transcarpathian priest, János Boksay. From there a straight path led to Liszt’s little known, but extremely rich works for male choir, then to Bartók’s brilliant male choral pieces. Besides the musical heritage of the Byzantine tradition, the works of the great Hungarian composers became the other main pillar of the repertoire.
As a result of numerous appearances at choir festivals at home and abroad, several contemporary composers became attracted to the unique sound of the Saint Ephraim Male Choir. Thanks to this, many of them composed works for the ensemble. Today Saint Ephraim performs contemporary works at each of their concerts.
The eight-member ensemble gives concerts within Hungary and world-wide on a regular basis. Their own series, Orientale Lumen (Light of the East), features well-known soloists and ensembles. They have issued 13 CDs so far. The members are versatile chamber musicians, who also make transcriptions and arrangements, and compose works for the ensemble.
The artistic directors are Tamás Bubnó and Lőrinc Bubnó.

Péter started his music studies in Tapolca on the trumpet. Later he studied in Veszprém and in Debrecen. He only started to work as a professional singer after receiving his degree as an instrumentalist in 2006. He sang in the Debrecen Kodály Chorus, then became a member of the Honvéd Male Choir of the Hungarian Army. Until 2020 he sang bass in the Hungarian Radio Choir. He has sung with Saint Ephraim since 2013.

Professional singer and drummer, he started his music studies aged 8 in the Budapest Singing School, under the tutelage of his father, Tamás Bubnó. He unsuccessfully auditioned at the Academy of Music several times. Today he believes that institutional music education would have hindered his musical creativity. He was a founding member of Saint Ephraim and he is known country-wide with his band, Anna and the Barbies. Since 2017 he has been editor-presenter of the classical music programme of Klub Rádió “Dr Bubnó Roll”.

Edgár was enamoured by the stage and the performing arts as a young boy. He wanted to become an actor and be engaged with music and literature. Since he was not accepted at the Academy of Theatrical Arts after one attempt, urged by his school music teacher he started studying voice at the Leó Weiner Conservatory. He was admitted to the Ferenc Liszt University of Music in 2011 where he received his degree in classical voice in 2014. He has been singing with the ensemble since 2016. In addition, he has often appeared with the Hungarian Opera Choir, the Hungarian Radio Choir and other music ensembles as a freelance singer.

Conducting and directing a choir has always played a central role in the career of Tamás Bubnó. In 1988 László Dobszay asked him and János Mezei to found and direct the Budapest Singing School, where the educational system of a schola was integrated into contemporary music education. This school has been a success, and excellent soloists and chamber singers have trained under his direction. Since 2006 Bubnó has taught a course in Byzantine church music and pedagogical career orientation at the church music department of the Ferenc Liszt University of Music. In 2009 Fülöp Kocsis, Greek Catholic diocesan bishop in Hajdúdorog, invited him to become the professional leader of the Byzantine music programme at the St Athanasius Greek Catholic Theological Institute. In this programme Bubnó, as associate professor, directs the musical education of future Greek Catholic cantors and priests.
He has visited almost every country in Europe as well as the United States, Canada, South America, India and Japan as a chamber singer, soloist, researcher and choral conductor. Bubnó has participated in about 30 CD-recordings, compiled church music and educational radio programmes, published studies in books and periodicals on Eastern and Western church music, and their teaching within the framework of the present-day Hungarian educational system.

For Marcell it was important even in kindergarten to choose a place where he could learn to play the violin. In addition, he played folk instruments and the piano and attended individual voice training classes. His more serious musical studies started in the Schola Cantorum Budapestiensis under the tutelage of Tamás Bubnó. He took part in several productions as a child soloist (Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Benjamin Britten’s The Little Sweep, and Arthur Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher). He received his degree as a psychologist in 2021 from the Gáspár Károli Calvinist University. In his professional work he mostly relies on the impact music has on developing abilities and creating connections. He especially enjoys working with people with a damaged central nervous system and he has regularly conducted music therapy sessions at a children’s psychiatric ward in Budapest. In his studies he examined the influence of music on developing abilities and self-development from the perspective of neuropsychology, psychoanalysis and sensorimotor coordination. He has been a member of St. Ephraim since 2016..

Lőrinc Bubnó graduated from the Ferenc Liszt University of Music as a church musician and choral conductor in 2011. He has been singing in St. Ephraim since 2010 and became the manager of the male ensemble in 2016. From 2020 he has been artistic director jointly with his father. His excursions into the world of pop music bear witness to his musical versatility: until 2019 he was the composer, arranger and lyrics writer of the YOULI band and in 2020 he started his own “one-man-show” project called NOMIQUE, which has an increasing following in the online world. He gained the skills and knowledge necessary to directing an ensemble in the areas of marketing, PR, event organizing and project management while, between 2013 and 2019, he worked as editor for the Hungarian Radio, later MTVA, and was the leader of the Hungarian Eurovision Delegation.

Viktor is the youngest member of the group, who joined Saint Ephraim when he was only 18. He comes from Transcarpathia and speaks Russian and Ukrainian as a mother tongue, which is an enormous help in a significant part of the repertoire of the ensemble. He moved to Hungary in 2015, when he began his studies as a singer in the Leó Weiner Music High School. Since 2019 he has studied choral conducting at the Ferenc Liszt University of Music. He has won several prizes at Hungarian voice competitions, among them the International József Simándy Voice Competition.

Ambrus played the recorder in primary school and later he chose the accordion. After his secondary school studies he was admitted to the Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choral School to study church music. Here he began his formal studies on the piano and organ as part of the course. Later he added voice studies and from then on he took every opportunity to sing. From 2012 he sang in several mixed choirs and he also participated for shorter or longer periods in a gospel choir, a show choir, a contemporary choir, and a vocal ensemble. He received his degree at the Ferenc Liszt University of Music as a church musician (organist) and a teacher of music in 2020. He joined Saint Ephraim Male Choir in 2019.