Curriculum Vitae
Ildikó Rita Anna Varga
Classical singer, singing teacher, Dr. phil. (PhD)
Ildikó Rita Anna Varga (Varga Ildikó Rita Anna—VIRA) debuted as Fenena in Verdi’s Nabucco, directed by András Kürthy, in the Hungarian Opera House of Cluj-Napoca in 2000; but she started her career in operetta and musical shows similarly to her famous ancestor, Marika Németh. She sang the role of Anita in the cross section of West Side Story in Pécs, worked as the prima donna of the galas of InterOperett and other productions (such as the Operetta Galas of the Honvéd Art Ensemble) in the Hungarian capital and in the country too.
She got a contract in Iceland where she sang the main roles of several Mozart operas (2002: Cosi Fan Tutte—Dorabella, 2003: Don Giovanni—Donna Elvira) both in the country and in the capital, Reykjavik, and she received outstanding reviews. She also sang for the President of the Republic of Iceland: Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (2001, Stykkisholmur) and performed two concerts in the Reykjavik Opera House (2002 and 2003) as well as contributed to several chamber music performances and different concerts in the capital of Iceland and in the country. She worked together with many famous and excellent conductors, directors, and artists, both in Hungary and abroad, such as Ferenc Nagy, András Kürthy, Béla Hary, Domonkos Héja, Ádám Medveczky, Balázs Szokolay, Maria Teresa Uribe, Géza Oberfrank, Péter Oberfrank, Kálmán Szennai, Gergely Vajda, Péter Eötvös, Áugúst Ólafsson, Keith Reed, and Gunnstein Ólafsson. Besides singing roles in Mozart and Verdi operas, she was also Örzse (Ilka) and the Empress in the cross section of Kodály’s Háry on the concerts of the National Philharmonia of Hungary. She received the scholarship of Opera Friend’s Society in Budapest and sang at different oratorio concerts several times (for example in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Kőszeg, Budapest, and Hafnarfjörđur).
She participated in numerous Master Classes held by Kristján Jóhansson, Júlia Hamari, Lorraine Nubar (Juilliard’s teacher in New York), Dalton Baldwin (Jessye Norman’s chamber music partner), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Walter Moore, Sándor Sólyom-Nagy, and Walter Moore. She attended the International Singer Master Course in Majk several times, organised by the Opera House of Budapest, and the Bartók Seminar in Szombathely too. Between 2004 and 2006 she went on tour in Hungary as a novatrix to give unique chamber music performances in which prose, poem, film, songs, arias, and piano pieces from different artists and ages of music history constituted a whole story (for example, Eternal Woman—monodrama, 2006).
Among many other qualifications she received her university degree in Singing (MA), and Teaching (MA) at the Faculty of Music and Visual Arts of the University of Pécs in 2008, where she was a student of Veronika Kincses. She completed her studies in two years instead of five. (Undivided training.) Her former singing masters were Mrs. Pillári née Eszter Rögöz, Maria Teresa Uribe-Reddemann, and Margit Ercse. Currently working as a singing teacher and singer, writing essays and studies about the history of music, directing and about to introduce her own fashion collection. She obtained her Ph.D. title from music history on 24 March 2015 at the department of Music Institute of Composition, Music Theory, Music History and Conducting at the University of Graz. (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Graz.)
