FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of Gábor Varga as associate professor of music in clarinet, effective Aug. 1, 2022, pending approval of the Trustees of Indiana University.
Varga is currently tutor in clarinet at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, U.K., where he was previously international chair of clarinet since 2017.
“It is an honor to be able to appoint Gábor Varga to the faculty in our Woodwinds Department,” said Jeremy Allen, David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean (Interim). “He is an astonishing performer and a nurturing teacher, and his presence will be transformative for our students.”
“The Woodwinds Department is thrilled with the addition of Gábor Varga to the faculty at the Jacobs School of Music,” said Kathleen McLean, Woodwinds Department chair. “He brings much expertise as an orchestral musician, recording soloist and pedagogue with a strong international presence.”
Born in Hungary, Varga’s professional orchestral career began in 1995, when he became principal clarinet of the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1996, he became principal clarinet of Concerto Budapest, and since 1997, he has been principal clarinet of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as principal clarinet with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra while on sabbatical from Budapest. He has also worked regularly with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra since 2001.
Winner of several national and international prizes, Varga has performed in more than 25 countries worldwide. As a keen advocate of new music, he has premiered several new works of chamber music and commissioned numerous concertos from leading Hungarian composers, including Durkó, Kovács and Vajda.
Recordings by Varga include several chamber works and concertos by Weber and Mozart for Hungarian radio, as well as CDs of the Nielsen Concerto, "Dreamdances" by Kovács, chamber music by Drusetzky and Vajda’s clarinet works.
Varga’s teaching career began at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 2001 as an assistant. In 2006, he taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. In 2014, he joined the staff of the University of Debrecen in Eastern Hungary. Later that year, he was appointed professor of clarinet at the Tibor Varga Faculty of Musical Arts at the University of Györ.
Varga regularly gives master classes at major universities in Europe, Asia and North and South America, as well as at festivals of the International Clarinet and European Clarinet associations.