Béla Lajos was born in Hungary in 1929 and studied at the State Conservatory in his hometown of Szeged. After 1950 he was the principal flutist of the national theatre orchestra there and of the philharmonic orchestra (Bartók Béla Philharmonikus Zenekar). In 1952 he was asked to teach at the State Music School in Békéscsaba.



The events of 1956 in Hungary forced him to emigrate. He studied in Vienna with Professor Resnicek at the Wiener Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst and was a founding member of the Philharmonia Hungarica. For twenty years he remained flutist of this renowned orchestra, which settled after 1960 in Marl, Westphalia and was adopted by the Federal Republic of Germany as a refugee orchestra.



From 1976 he taught at the Kreismusikschule Kleve. He is also a painter, whose works have been exhibited in Germany and Hungary.