
ABOUT BÁLINT
My name is Bálint Varga. I was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. I’ve been living in NY for the past 10 years and have been working as a composer, writer, interdisciplinary artist, and immigration advocate.
My work centers around human relationships and nature observing the individual’s complexity and desires that make us human and vulnerable. I like exploring themes in a vast array of forms and musical styles. While traveling and working around the world over the years, I encountered many cultural influences, sounds, joy, celebrations, and interesting people. My music is influenced by world ethnic music, romanticism, Gypsy music, great American film scores, NY underground brass ensemble, Afro-Cuban and Eastern Jazz. Strong melodies, complex harmonic structures, vocal sound effects, and soundscapes are the pillar of my art.
I started playing piano at age 4. When I turned 17 I moved to Paris where I started my first professional work at the Bastille Opera House. First, I graduated from Béla Bartók Conservatory, later I moved to America and studied composition and conducting at Berklee College of Music. After graduation, I settled in NYC (interesting fact: I also hold a BA degree in business communication and studied psychology).
As a teaching artist, I've worked at Broadway Dreams to train the next generation of theater performers for music. I performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, Birdland, Bastille Opera House, and 54 Below.
I received my US Green Card for extraordinary abilities based on his achievement in my field. I am the recipient of the Charles Mayer Grant, the Lily Award, I am a Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Lehman Engel BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop.
I also collaborated on Broadway workshops such as Elton John’s Tammy Faye or Jim Steinman’s Bat Out Of Hell, and on Mariah Carey’s Christmas show, Josh Groban's Impossible Dream, and Forest Whitaker’s Benefit Concert.
Commissions: Gia Forakis Company, Peculiar Project Works, Tobe Art Productions.
Ongoing projects: The Black Samurai, d'ILLUSION - The Houdini Musical, Reflections, Where We Rush To Disappear, Gailley and the Tale of the Fate Keeper, Hypatia and the Heathens.