József Kozák has been making bagpipes for 35 years. He is not only an instrument maker, but a performing artist, too. He learned to play and make the bagpipe from old Hungarian bagpipe players and musicians from the neighbouring peoples in the Carpathian basin. He was awarded the title of Young Master of folk Art in 1978.

He was interested in the origin of bagpipes; therefore he had been making research work also in this direction. Besides Sumerian, Egyptian and other ancient double reeds he succeeded in reconstructing also the medieval bladder pipe which was used by the Avar people living in the Carpathian basin in the 7th century.

Regarding the future he has been making experiments with plastic and membrane reeds to enable almost anybody to play the bagpipe. As a result he was granted a prize from the Hungarian Instrument Makers’ Association in 2003. His membrane-system bagpipes are famous among festival visitors all over Europe.

His ocarinas and ceramic whistles are very popular with young people.