About
Zsofia Csikos-Tardy is a Portland-based jazz singer and music educator. She earned her BMus and MMus degrees from the prestigious Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.
She started singing on stage at age four. As a versatile singer, she has been the lead vocalist for various jazz, pop, and rock groups, big bands, classical and gospel choirs, and chamber orchestras. She performs in multiple languages: English, Italian, Hungarian, German, Portuguese, French, and Spanish. With over 30 years in the music industry, she has actively performed and participated in recordings of jazz, pop, rock, gospel, and classical CDs as lead singer, background vocalist, songwriter, lyricist, and vocal coach, touring all over Europe for 20 years.
Major festivals where she has appeared include the International Book Festival in Frankfurt, DE; multiple times at the Pepsi Island in Budapest, HU; a live broadcast concert at the Marble Hall of Hungarian Radio in Budapest, HU; Music & Light Festival in Miskolc, HU; Valley of Arts in Kapolcs, HU, where she and her band won the festival’s first award; Street Festival in Veszprém, HU; Jazz Festival in Kenese, HU; International Jazz Festival in Nagykanizsa, HU; Europafestival in Bucharest, RO; X. Jazzland in Cserfő, HU; V. Mezőkövesd Jazz Days in Mezőkövesd, HU; V. Gömör-Torna Festival in Aggtelek, HU; Zemplén Art Festival in Sárospatak, HU; Jazz and Blues Festival in Barcs, HU; Jazznica Summer Jazz Festival in Banská Štiavnica, SK; Italian tour with the Golgota Gospel Choir with concerts at the Teatro Eliseo in Rome, IT, and in Montabelluna, IT; PDX Jazz Festival in Portland, OR; International Jazz Day in San Diego, CA, and in Portland, OR. Currently, Zsofia is a Professor of Jazz Voice at Lewis & Clark College, and maintains a thriving home studio in SW Portland. She was a substitute Professor at Western Oregon University (WOU) in 2015, and a guest Professor of Voice on behalf of WOU in Nanning, China, in 2017 and 2018Since moving to Portland, she has been performing regularly with the top jazz musicians of the town: Randy Porter, Mike Horsfall, John Moak, Ron Steen, Steve Christofferson, Perry Thorsell, Ben Graves, Bobby Torres, Laura Cunard, Tim Gilson, Christopher Woitach, Kevin Dietz, Dennis Caiazza, Phil Baker, Dave Averre, David Watson, Kerry McCoy, Mike Snyder, John Nastos, Gordon Lee, Dave Captain, Ed Bennet, Brent Follis, Tom Grant, and many others.
She often performs with her quartet the “Hunglish Project” with Bill Athens on bass and Adam Carlson on drums, and her duo, the “Hunglish Duo Project,” with her guitarist husband, Attila Csikos.
Both audiences and fellow musicians describe her as a “force of nature”, especially praising her scatting, which resembles that of the greatest jazz singers.
