Judit Varga (born 12 January 1979 in Győr) is an Erkel Ferenc Prize and Béla Bartók - Ditta Pásztory Award winner composer,

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

and university lecturer. She is known for contemporary classical music compositions as well as for composing for motion pictures and theatre pieces. As a solo pianist and chamber musician, she performed in many countries, on prestigious festivals. She is looking for new impulses both as a musician and as a teacher. The two primary platforms of her studies and work are

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and

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Life

She started her studies at the Liszt Ferenc Music School in Győr, where she played the piano and the flute. She then attended the Béla Bartók School in Budapest. At the age of 16, she has already received scholarships to foreign summer courses. In 2005 she graduated with honors at the

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

, where she studied piano and composition. In the meantime she was admitted to the

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. With a student body of over three thousa ...

too, to the media composition and applied music, piano and composition faculties, and since 2013 she is a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

student there. Since September 2013 she is teaching composition and film music composition at the composition department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, while at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna she teaches ear training and analysis to the students of the composition and conducting departments. At the beginning of the 2000s, she used to be a tutor of the singer, string and flute classes of the Austrian Master Classes in Zell an der Pram and of their master classes in Vienna. At the Richter János High School of Music in Győr she was teaching composition, score reading, music theory and orchestration. In 2008 she led the piano class of the Maria Regina Volksschule in Vienna and she was a silent film pianist as well. Her compositions are performed worldwide in such prestigious concert halls and festivals as the Wien Modern, the

Hungarian State Opera House The Hungarian State Opera House ( hu, Magyar Állami Operaház) is a neo-Renaissance opera house located in central Budapest, on Andrássy út. Originally known as the Hungarian Royal Opera House, it was designed by Miklós Ybl, a major figure o ...

, the

Philharmonie de Paris The Philharmonie de Paris () ( en, Paris Philharmonic) is a complex of concert halls in Paris, France. The buildings also house exhibition spaces and rehearsal rooms. The main buildings are all located in the Parc de la Villette at the northeaste ...

, the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, the Mini Festival, the Konzerthaus and

Musikverein The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The acoustics of the building's 'Gr ...

Wien, the Muffathalle

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and the

Warsaw Autumn Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

. They are part of the repertoire of Hungarian and foreign bands like the

Ensemble Modern Ensemble Modern is an international ensemble dedicated to performing and promoting the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries. Hi ...

, the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

, the

Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (German: ''ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien'', or RSO Wien) is the orchestra of the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). Unlike most other Austrian orchestras, the RSO Wien has a sub ...

, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, the UMZE Ensemble, the Concerto Budapest, the Ensemble Kontrapunkte, the Riot Ensemble London, the ensemble XX. jahrhundert (eXXj) and the Hungarian Radio Choir. All of her compositions were commissioned. She performed on many stages all around the world as a solo pianist and chamber musician. In 2016 her opera, ''Love'', which is an adaptation of the classic film of Tibor Déry,

Károly Makk Károly Makk (December 22, 1925 – August 30, 2017) was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Five of his films were nominated for the ''Palme d'Or'' at the Cannes Film Festival; however, he won lesser awards at Cannes and elsewhere. He wa ...

and Péter Bacsó, debuted in the Hungarian State Opera House as part of the memorial year of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hung ...

. In 2019 she was awarded with the TONALi19 composer award for her piano solo, ''Pendulum''. This also means that said composition will be performed by the participants of the piano competition of the TONALi Festival in the Elbphilharmonie. Beside contemporary classical music, she is particularly interested in scoring motion pictures and theatre pieces, and in the compositions written for multimedia events. In 2013, when the Prima Primissima Prize has undergone a complete renewal, she was entrusted to design the new musical image. She composed music for more than 30 theatre pieces and films. In 2014 the Academy of Austrian Film awarded best soundtrack to ''Deine Schönheit ist nichts Wert'' (''Your Beauty is Worth Nothing...''). In autumn, the Konzerthaus of Vienna commissioned her to compose new music score for a Bolshevik Soviet propaganda silent film from 1924, ''The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks''. The renewed film premiered in March 2016. Approximately 30% of her work is made up of composing for films. She is a member of the Hungarian Composers’ Union, the Austrian Composers’ Association and the Studio 5 composer group. The latter was founded in 2017 and they aim to organize concerts that can bridge tradition and innovation.

Main works

Operas

Orchestral works

Ensemble

Chamber music

Vocal music

Solo Instrument

Film Scores

Dance Theatre Music

Theatre Music

Discography

Awards

* 1st prize –

(LFZE) Composer Competition, Budapest (1998) * 1st prize – LFZE Composer Competition, Budapest (1999) * SKE Special Award – Social and cultural support from austro mechana - SKE Fonds, Vienna (2003) * 2st prize – LFZE Composer Competition, Budapest (2003) * 2st prize – LFZE Composer Competition, Budapest (2004) * Special Award – Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition, Pécs (2005) * Dryard Prize – Vienna International Pianists Academy, Vienna (2006) * Theodor Körner Prize (2009) * 1st prize, Orchestra category – UMZF Composer Competition, Budapest (2009) * State scholarship – BMUKK (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur), Vienna (2010) * 2st prize, Orchestra category – New Hungarian Music Forum (UMZF) Composer Competition, Budapest (2011) * Special Award – Ö1 Talentebörse-Kompositionspreis, Vienna (2012) * Winner of the „Woher? Wohin? Mythen, Nation, Identitäten“ tender – Goethe-Institut, Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt (2012) * Film Prize nominee, Best Soundtrack – 49. International Antalya Film Festival (2012) * Film Prize nominee, Best Soundtrack – Austrian Film Academy (2013) * Staatsstipendium – BMUKK (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur), Vienna (2014) * Film Prize, Best Soundtrack – Austrian Film Academy (Deine Schönheit ist nichts Wert, 2014) * Winner of the Hungarian State Opera House's tender for the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956., Budapest (''Love'', 2016) * Bartók Béla–Pásztory Ditta Prize (2017) * „Call for scores” winner of the Riot Ensemble (Broken Beauty, 2018) * Erkel Ferenc Prize (2018) * Istvánffy Benedek Prize (Pocket Requiem, 2018) * TONALi Prize – Tonali Classical Music Competition and Festival (''Pendulum'', 2019)

References

* *
Judit Varga
Budapest Music Center, info.bmc.hu
Judit Varga
Music Information Center Austria (mica) Music Database, db.musicaustria.at
Judit Varga
in Teaching Staff, Liszt Academy, lfze.hu * * * *

External links

YouTube Profile of Judit Varga
* Andrea Kolozsvári
Varga Judit és Takács-Nagy Gábor kapta a Bartók-Pásztory-díjat
(Judit Varga and Gábor Takács-Nagy have been awarded the Bartók-Pásztory Prize), musicianswho.hu – 28 March 2017. (In Hungarian)
Visitenkarte von Judit Varga Mag.art.
MDWonline - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, (28 March 2019.) (In German)
Author: Judit Varga
International experiences at & with the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (28 March 2019.) (In German)
http://studio5-music.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varga, Judit 1979 births Hungarian composers Hungarian women pianists Living people People from Győr Women classical pianists