Bright colors, flowing skirts and traditional dances accompanied by the musical stylings of bagpipes, strings and gypsy music are what the audience will encounter when they attend the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble performance Saturday.

The ensemble is a group organized around the principles of preserving traditional Hungarian costume, dance and music. The group started in 1951 and exists today internationally, having toured in 44 countries across four continents.

It attracts audiences because people appreciate the fact that this ensemble is helping preserve ancient traditions from their native country, said Bobby Tyler, marketing & media relations director for the UGA Performing Arts Center.

The ensemble is comprised of 30 dancers, 14 members of the Gypsy Orchestra and five members of the Folk Orchestra.

The Gypsy Orchestra performs in conjunction with the dance group as well as solo, while the Folk Orchestra uses traditional instruments to recreate old Hungarian music.

Choreography used for the dances are all based on actual dances, and some of the choreography is even taken from isolated villages.

The music played by this group is folk music which inspired such composers as Friedrich Liszt, B�la Bart�k and Zoltan Kodály.

Saturday’s performance will include an homage to Bart�k, both a composer and pianist. He helped found the field of ethnomusicology, a study of how ethnography relates to folk music.

Before the performance at 7:15 p.m., the Performing Arts Center will also hold a lecture given by Laura Patterson about Bart�k and the music featured by the orchestras.

“As part of our education mission, we present a series of pre-concert lectures to help enhance the concert-going experience for our patrons,” Tyler said.

Laura Patterson is a violinist and music major at the University. She’s very interested in music history, and when there was no staff member to give the lecture this weekend, she volunteered.

“I’m going to use my violin to demonstrate some of the folk influences in the performance,” she said.

“I think there are so many people who enjoy music but don’t get to experience the deeper meaning of the theory in performance. Music has something to offer everyone, and folk is a genre that people can relate to.”