The Mário Rafel Trio was founded in the spring of 2014, still among the walls of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, and has soon become a regular performer on the Budapest jazz scene. The trio makes up its own style using elements of various genres: from jazz through Balkan music to hip-hop. They play mostly their own compositions and put great emphasis both on collective improvisation and on their genuine sound using a wide range of effects daringly.

At the end of 2017, their debut album, My Hope, was released on Hunnia Records, entirely with original material on it.  As the leader put it, the compositions were inspired by the positive and negative energies and life situations from their own experiences, and the emotional improvisation of the musicians make them really tangible. With the material of the new album, the Márió Rafael Trio won in December 2017 the special prize of the international Hitch On Music – Jazz Juniors competition in Cracow, and the group received an invitation to a tour in 2018 to the Benelux states.