Judit Varga – short bio
(last updated in March 2021)
Hungarian born Judit Varga is a Vienna-based classical music composer, film composer, pianist and university professor.
Her compositions, in which she combines the classical tradition with the most up-to-date experimental currents, are performed in such prestigious festivals and concert halls as Wien Modern, the Hungarian State Opera House, Cité de la musique Paris, Juilliard School of Music in New York, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Budapest Autumn Festival, Mini Festival, Konzerthaus and Musikverein Wien, Muffathalle München, and Warsaw Autumn.
She works with leader orchestras and ensembles from all over the world, including Ensemble Modern, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, and Riot Ensemble London.
Judit Varga is the first prize winner of many prestigious international piano and composition competitions. She won the Zoltán Kodály music and composing scholarship of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Hungary three times (2002, 2003 and 2006) as well as the Tokyo Foundation scholarship twice (2001 and 2004).
As a reward for her outstanding artistic performance, in 2011 and 2014 she received the Creative Award of the Austrian Education and Training Ministry. In 2012, she was awarded by the City of Vienna. In 2017, she received the Béla Bartók – Ditta Pásztory Prize for her work contribution to Hungarian contemporary music and cultural life of Hungary. In 2018, Judit Varga was awarded with the prestigious Ferenc Erkel Prize by the Hungarian Government.
In 2016, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the 1956 revolution, the Hungarian State Opera commissioned and premiered her opera Love in Budapest with great success. In 2019, she was awarded with the TONALi19 composer prize for her solo piano piece Pendulum that premiered at the Elbphilharmonie in the same year.
She is the music composer of more than 30 theatre performances and films. In 2013, 2014 and 2020, she was the nominee of the Austrian Academy of Films in the category of “Best Soundtrack”. In 2014 she won the prize for the film music of Deine Schönheit ist nichts Wert.
From 2013 to 2019, she taught composition and applied composition at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. In parallel, she worked as lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (mdw) where she was appointed as university professor of composition and media composition in 2019. On 1 March 2021, she took up the position of Head of Institute for Composition, Electroacoustics and Tonmeister Education at mdw.
Awards:
- 2019: TONALi Prize
- 2018: Istvánffy Benedek Award
- 2018 Erkel Ferenc Award
- 2017 Béla Bartók – Ditta Pásztory Award
- 2017 Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs (…alles Fleisch…)
- 2014 Austrian Film Academy – Best score (Your Beauty is Worth Nothing)
- 2013 Austrian Film Academy – Best score – Nominée (A Horse on the Balcony)
- 2012 Golden Orange (International Antalya Film Festival) Best score – Nominée (Your Beauty is Worth Nothing)
- 2009 Theodor-Körner-Award
- 2010 Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs (Le Temps retrouvé)
Judit Varga 