Praised for her “radiant soprano”, soprano Dana Lynne Varga has established herself as a dynamic interpreter of a wide variety of repertoire on opera and concert stages. In the last year, Ms. Varga has been seen on the stages of both Carnegie Hall and Boston's Symphony Hall, performing as soloist in both the Mozart and Brahms Requiem and in a professional octet with the Boston Pops. Her 2019 appearance as Pallas Athene in Gluck’s rarely heard Paride ed Elena with Odyssey Opera at Boston's Huntington Theatre garnered critical acclaim for her “soprano of impressive scale ... that nearly stole the entire show” (EDGE Media Network).
Ms. Varga maintains a busy schedule on the concert platform. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as the soprano soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Mid-America Productions.The Boston Globe praised her 2018 appearance with the Cantata Singers in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, noting that she “streaked up into the stratosphere and back down with ease.” Other recent engagements include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with both the MIT and Wellesley Symphony Orchestras, Bach Cantata 140 and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with Commonwealth Chorale, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Greenwich Choral Society, Bach’s Magnificat with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat with Coro Allegro. In past seasons, Ms. Varga has appeared as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with Coro Allegro, Fauré’s Requiem and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3 with the Springfield Symphony, Amy Beach’s Mass with the Commonwealth Chorale, Haydn’s Creation with the Polymnia Choral Society, Orff’s Carmina Burana with both the Granite State Choral Society and Assabet Valley Mastersingers, and Beethoven’s Mass in C at Tanglewood. With The Metropolitan Chorale of Brookline, she has performed the Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony and Dona Nobis Pacem, the Brahms Requiem, and the Dvořák Te Deum. Ms. Varga regularly performs Handel’s Messiah across the Eastern seaboard, with organizations such as Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, New England Classical Singers, and many others.
Notable recent engagements on the opera stage include Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte excerpts with Boston Midsummer Opera, Kayla in the workshop world premiere of Taking Up Serpents presented by MASSOpera and Washington National Opera under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya, Stacy Helson in On Behalf of a Madman with Grand Harmonie and zweite Zofe in Der Zwerg with Odyssey Opera. Other favorite opera roles include Musetta in La bohème, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Micaëla in Carmen, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, and Alcina in Alcina. She has appeared with Teatro Nuovo, Opera Maine, MassOpera, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Opera Boston, Boston Baroque, PANopera, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Commonwealth Opera, the Aldeburgh (Britten-Pears) Festival, and many others.
Ms. Varga was the second place winner of the 2019 American Prize in art song and oratorio, and the first place winner of the 2016 Classical Singer National Vocal Competition. She won second place in the 2016 Rochester Oratorio Society Classical Idol Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2016 Oratorio Society of New York Competition, was awarded the 2012 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Grant for excellence in music, and was a finalist in the lieder division of the Boston Regional Auditions of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions in 2007. She earned her DMA in Vocal Performance from Boston University, and her MM in Vocal Performance from The New England Conservatory of Music.
Also an accomplished voice teacher, career coach, and producer, Ms. Varga is a fierce advocate for singers, devoted to progressive change in the classical vocal industry. Please be sure to visit theempoweredmusician.com.