About
Abigél Varga (b. 1996, Eger, Hungary) is a composer based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest from Péter Tornyai, Judit Varga, and Zsófia Tallér, before earning her Meisterklasse Diploma at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München in the class of Prof. Moritz Eggert. In 2023, she took part in the Lucerne Festival Academy Composer Seminar mentored by Unsuk Chin and Dieter Ammann.
Her output spans music theatre, operas, oratorios, orchestral, and chamber works investigating acoustic architecture, micro-rhythmic textures, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Notable stage works include Lisa’s Land of Smiles (Lisas Land des Lächelns) with a run of 20 performances at Neuköllner Oper Berlin, and the dance oratorio Embrace (Reaktorhalle Munich, Solti Hall Budapest).
Varga’s music has been performed and commissioned by leading international institutions and festivals, including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Kronberg Academy Festival (Casals Forum, premiered by Vadim Gluzman and Evgeny Sinaiski), Frankfurt LAB, Budapest Music Center (UMZE Ensemble), the Lucerne Festival, and the aDevantgarde Festival.
She is the winner of the Fanny Mendelssohn Composition Prize (2025), recipient of the national Zoltán Kodály Creation Fellowship (2026), and an alumna of residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and BASIS Vinschgau Venosta. In 2024, she received the Deutsche Bank Foundation fellowship (Akademie Musiktheater heute), leading to the commission of her chamber opera Tango Paradiso for Ensemble Modern.
Since 2026, Varga has been a member of the POD-Collective (Salzburg/Munich). Her works are published by Verlag Neue Musik Berlin and registered with GEMA. Parallel to her compositional work, she is active as a curator and arts manager, having collaborated with FUGA Budapest, the Sonus Foundation, the Crescendo Summer Academy, and the aDevantgarde Festival.
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"Her inexhaustible musical imagination and her attention to detail are particularly striking. I am always very impressed by how intensively she also deals with the non-musical dimension, e.g. with other arts such as literature, theater , or the visual arts, but also politics and the ecological challenges of our time. ”
"The close collaboration with Abigel Varga is extremely valuable to us, the Trio Merak. Together, we pursue the vision of creating new works for unusual combinations of instruments, exploring new soundscapes, effects and playing techniques. It is a special privilege to be able to work directly with the composer on new works. She not only allows us to interpret her music, but also to actively participate in the creative process. This gives rise to a creative dialogue in which Abigel responds to our instrument-specific feedback and we jointly find new ways to bring the composition to life."
Moritz Eggert, Composer and Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München
Cristina Lehaci, Percussionist, Trio Merak
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