Judit Varga, professor of the Composition Department, receives prestigious award

Judit Varga won the German TONALi Award for her new composition titled “Pendulum”. The work has been published by Sikorski Publishing.

The winning composition is performed in twelve concerts in Hamburg alone, and the celebratory first performance is 22 June at the grand hall of Elbphilharmonie. The concert is broadcasted live by radio broadcaster NDR.

TONALi is an ECHO Klassik Award (2017) winning cultural project that serves as a musical competition, academy, festival and quality promotion of youth at the same time. In 2010 the instrument competition became one of the core events of the project, the honorary president of which is Christoph Eschenbach. The headquarters of the project is Hamburg, but there are partners outside Germany as well, such as schools, festivals, academies, and other institutions. Part of the project is the annual TONALi composition competition, for which the application requirements are having permanent residence in Germany, Switzerlannd or Austria and being 40 years of age or under. Contestants can enter the competition with solo pieces that are composed for the instrument set for the given year. After careful consideration, the international jury of professionals select and announce the winner at the beginning of the TONALi season, who can perform their winning piece at two occasions at least during the period of the TONALi festival and competition, and the composition is published by Sikorski Music Publishers. THE EUR 4000 prize fund is provided by the Oscar und Vera Ritter Foundation. The three finalists receive EUR 1000 each, and the first prize winner is awarded another EUR 1000.

The advisory board has prominent members such as Kirill Petrenko, Mischa Maisky, Martin Grubinger, Paavo Järvi, Lisa Batiashvili, Igor Levit and Janine Jansen.