Simon VÁRALLYAY

29 July 1997

Hungary

Aged seven, he started learning the piano at the Pátzay János Catholic Music School, Gyöngyös, taught by his organist-piano teacher father, Róbert Várallyay, before continuing his studies (from 2012) as a student majoring in piano at the Bartók Béla Secondary School of Music, initially under Erzsébet Belák Kőrösiné, and later Zoltán Fejérvári. He has been entering (and winning prizes at) competitions since starting music school. In 2016, he became the student of András Kemenes at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. He spent the 2017/2018 academic year in Boston, where he had the opportunity of taking an active part in several master classes of the New England Conservatory, and studying alongside professors of the university, among them Bruce Brubaker. In the course of his studies he has learnt from famous artists such as József Balog, Dénes Várjon and Rita Wagner.

REPERTOIRE:

PRELIMINARY

Bartók: Three Burlesques, BB 55

Brahms: Ballade in D major, op. 10/2

Liszt: Transcendental Études – 2. Fusées

SEMI-FINAL

Bartók: Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, BB 83

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, op. 10/2 – 2. Menuetto, 3. Presto

János Mátyás Stark: Toccata

FINAL

Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, Deuxième année: Italie – 7. Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata

Debussy: Estampes

GRAND FINAL

Liszt: Piano Concerto in E-flat major