| Judit Varga | |
| Native Name: | Varga Judit |
| Birth Date: | 12 January 1979 |
| Birth Place: | Győr, Hungary |
| Occupation: | composer, pianist and university lecturer |
| Years Active: | present |
Judit Varga (born 12 January 1979 in Győr) is an Erkel Ferenc Prize and Béla Bartók - Ditta Pásztory Award winner composer, pianist 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 Vienna and Budapest.
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, where she studied piano and composition. In the meantime she was admitted to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna too, to the media composition and applied music, piano and composition faculties, and since 2013 she is a PhD 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 Philharmonie de Paris, the Juilliard School in New York, the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival, the Mini Festival, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein Wien, the Muffathalle Munich and the Warsaw Autumn. They are part of the repertoire of Hungarian and foreign bands like the Ensemble Modern, the BBC Symphony Orchestra,[1] the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra,[2] the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, the UMZE Ensemble,[3] the Concerto Budapest, the Ensemble Kontrapunkte,[4] the Riot Ensemble London, the ensemble XX. jahrhundert (eXXj)[5] 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 and Péter Bacsó, debuted in the Hungarian State Opera House as part of the memorial year of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. 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.[6] 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,[7] the Austrian Composers’ Association[8] and the Studio 5 composer group. The latter was founded in 2017 and they aim to organize concerts that can bridge tradition and innovation.[9]
| Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| I. Piano Concerto | 1996–1997 | |
| Quasi una cadenza | 2004–2005 | |
| Le Temps retrouvé | 2008 | |
| Concerto Rivolutionario | 2009 | |
| Concerto Imaginario | 2011 | |
| ...alles Fleisch... – in memoriam Zoltán Gyöngyössy | 2013 | |
| Urlicht | 2015 | |
| JUMP! | 2017 | |
| Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| Mosar II | 2019[11] | |
| Black and White | 2018 | |
| Hallgató-Pergető | 2009–2010 | |
| Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| Schlaflied für Johanna | 2001 | |
| Berceuse | 2001 | |
| Kammerkonzert für Klarinette und Ensemble | 2003–2004 | |
| In memoriam J.V. | 2004 | |
| Pavane | 2005 | |
| ...sweeter than roses... | 2010 | |
| Entitas | 2012 | |
| Speak Low | 2013 | |
| 13 Lieder (for bass clarinet and ensemble) | 2013 | |
| Broken Beauty | 2018[12] | |
| Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| Auge | 2001 | |
| Streichquartett II | 2002 | |
| ~opra01~ | 2002 | |
| Streichquartett IIB | 2003 | |
| Möbiusband | 2003 | |
| Dialog | 2004 | |
| Dialog (2. Version) | 2004–2005 | |
| Strictly Ballroom I | 2005 | |
| Strictly Ballroom III | 2005 | |
| Klavierquintett | 2007 | |
| Dietro la musica | 2013 | |
| Songs for a Waiting | 2013–2014 | |
| Mosar | 2017 | |
| Puzzle (Black Hole Edition) | 2018 | |
| Escapex2 | 2019 | |
| Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| Words | 2005 | |
| 10 Portraits for Viola | 2010 | |
| Barcarole pour Frédéric et George | 2010 | |
| Sonatine | 2013 | |
| 13 Lieder (for bass clarinet and live electronics) | 2005 | |
| Fanfaren | 2017 | |
| Centipede | 2017 | |
| Pendulum | 2019 | |
| Title | Nationality, Genre, Producer | Date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heim[14] |  AustriaShort | DramaFilmakademie Wien | 2010 | |
| Das Pferd auf dem Balkon[15] | AustriaDramaMinifilm | 2012 | ||
| Deine Schönheit ist nichts Wert[16] Güzelliğin On Par'etmez |  Austria TurkeyDramaDor Film, Filmakademie Wien, MarangozFilm | 2012 | ||
| [17] |   Germany Austria Italy SwitzerlandBiography | Drama | RomanceAvanti Media Fiction, Tempest Film, KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production | 2015 |
| Mr West[18] | Soviet Union, AustriaSilent movie | ComedyVienna Konzerthaus | 2016(eredeti: 1924) | |
| The Legend of the Ugly King | Germany, AustriaDocumentary | BiographyMitosfilm, Aichholzer Filmproduktion, MarangozFilm | 2017 | |
| Gypsy Queen | Germany, AustriaDrama | SportDor Film-West Produktionsgesellschaft, Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft, ARTE | (completed) | |
| Title | Premiere | Theatre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bertolt Brecht Man is Man | 1998 | ||
| August Strindberg, Friedrich Dürrenmatt:Play Strindberg! | 2001 | Éjszakai Theatre, Budapest | |
| Zoltán Egressy Vesztett éden | 2003 | Pinceszínház (Cellar Theater), Budapest | |
| Anton Chekhov The Seagull | 2004 | István Örkény Theatre, Budapest | |
| Sándor Márai Fizess nevetve[20] | 2008 | Éjszakai Theatre and Pinceszínház (Cellar Theater), Budapest | |
| Sándor Márai:Portraits of a Marriage - The real thing | 2009 | Pinceszínház (Cellar Theater), Budapest | |
| Leonid Zorin A Warsaw Melody | 2010 | Pinceszínház (Cellar Theater), Budapest | |
| Géza Csáth A Pertics Janika | 2011 | Pinceszínház (Cellar Theater), Budapest | |
| Robert Thomas Trap for a Single Man (Szegény Dániel) | 2012 | Karinthy Színház, Budapest | |
| Niels Peter Juel Larsen Blixen bárónő szerelmei[21] | 2014 | Centrál Színház, Budapest | |
| +Singles | Album | Publisher | Year | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lou Andreas-Salome[22] | Avanti | 2016 | Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
| +Compilation albums | Work(s) | Album | Publisher | Year | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schlaflied für Johanna | Volksmusik - 6. Komponistenforum Mittersill[23] | ein_klang Records | 2002 | ||
| Strictly Ballroom III | born to be off-road[24] | ein_klang Records | 2005 | CD1 | |
| Variationen Für Klavier 1,Variationen Für Klavier 2,Variationen Für Klavier 3 | The Next Generation[25] | ORF, ORF Funkhaus | 2005 | ||
| Opra 01,Quasi Prologue,Fließend Bewegt,Febbrile,Poco Feroce | ÖEGZM Vol. 4: Mixed Chamber Music 4Gemischte Kammermusik 4[26] Thürauer, Dimitrova, Varga, Bolcsó, Szakács | Ton 4 Records | 2009 | CD, performed by OEGZM(Österreichische Gesellschaft für zeitgenössische Musik) | |
| Le Temps retrouvé | Új Magyar Zenei Fórum 2009 zeneszerzőverseny(New Hungarian Music Forum 2009 composers' competition) | BMC HMIC | 2010 | 2 CD | |
| Képzelt zongoraverseny | Új Magyar Zenei Fórum 2011 zeneszerzőverseny[27] (New Hungarian Music Forum 2011 composers' competition) | BMC HMIC | 2011 | Performer: Concerto Budapest | |
| A Fly's Life and Decline | Sunfire[28] | The Twiolins MarieLuise & Christoph Dingler | 2014 | ||
| Entitas for twelve musicians (2012) | Woher? Wohin? – Mythen, Nation, Identitäten[29] | EM Medien | 2017 | Clemens Heil, Ensemble Modern, 2 CD | |
| Judit Varga Showreel | Austrian Film Composers’ Showreel Vol. 2[30] | Österreichischer Komponistenbund | 2018 | DVD | |