Janos Nagy compositions were mainly known by his jazz ensembles (MoNaMo, Janos Nagy Trio ect.) or chamber orchestra works. 

The ’Free Style Orchestra’ consisting of 21 members is a chamber orchestra that was founded by János Nagy, composer and Máté Pálhegyi, flautist. The formation, as its name indicates, aims at transgressing traditional genre borders. The wholly traditional string orchestra together with a normal quartet  is extended by  ”classical” woodwinds which, if necessary, can play instruments used in jazz as well.

 

The orchestra was created in order to complement the lack of  a musical genre that is now furnished by them: a stylistically totally unbound interpretation which at the same time preserves the purest artistic values.

 

The evergreen jazz standards as well as the contemporary pieces resound in a basically string orchestral way enlarged by the jazz quartet and the five woodwinds. This way the usual sound of a big jazz orchestra (the big-band sound) is enriched by new and unexpected fine shades of sound.

The objective is that valuable contemporary music should be available not only for a narrow public but to become a part of one’s everyday life just as it was the case in almost all of the preceding epochs of musical history.

During playing together improvisation has an important role to play and thus it gives a new sense to the concept of ”chamber orchestra concert” enhancing the continuous stream of  instant musical experience.  

 

Regular collaborators with the FSCO, bagpipe player Balázs Istvánfi and hurdy-gurdy player Béla Szerényi contribute greatly to the ensemble’s unique sound by injecting the musical styles of the Carpathian Basin and the folk music of other, similarly spirited peoples.

In 2002, on a request from the Béla Kövér Puppet Theatre of Szeged, he composed a one-act opera, which premiered in November 2003.

In the same year, together with co-writer Miklós Malek he engaged in the adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen. Their collaboration gave birth to a new piece mingling elements of classical, contemporary and jazz music. The premiere of this featured special guest Al Di Meola. The piece was later preformed at the Arena of Pula in Croatia.