What Would Mozart Do?
020 - Emporwering Musicians beyond the Pipeline
Today I am talking to Dana Lynne Varga. Dana is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition Dana is a career coach, founder and artistic director of the Boston-based opera company, MassOpera, as well as the founder and CEO of the Empowered Musician, a company which does just that—empowering musicians through guidance both artistically as well as in business and career development. In our chat Dana speaks frankly about the problems in academia and the music industry as well as the possibilities of negotiating a correlating career with a career in music.
Dr. Dana Lynne Varga is the Founder and CEO of The Empowered Musician, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of MassOpera, and an accomplished classical singer, voice teacher and career coach.
In addition to maintaining a full private voice studio for over 15 years, highlights of Dana’s teaching career have included seven years on the voice and opera faculty at the BU Tanglewood Institute, two years on the full-time voice faculty at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and two years on the voice faculty at the New England Conservatory Prep school. She is currently on the voice faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dana regularly performs a wide variety of repertoire on opera and concert stages. Recently she made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Mid-America Productions. Dana’s 2019 appearance as Pallas Athene in Gluck’s rarely heard Paride ed Elena with Odyssey Opera garnered critical acclaim.
Other recent notable engagements include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with The Cantata Singers, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Wellesley Symphony and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with Coro Allegro. Favorite operatic roles performed include Musetta in La bohème, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Micaëla in Carmen, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, and the title role in Alcina.
Dana won the Second Place American Prize for Art Song and Oratorio in 2019 and was the Winner of the professional division of the national Classical Singer Competition in 2016. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree in Vocal Performance from Boston University, the Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Websites and Social Media:
Instagram: @danalynnevarga and @theempoweredmusician
Today I am talking to Dana Lynne Varga. Dana is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition Dana is a career coach, founder and artistic director of the Boston-based opera company, MassOpera, as well as the founder and CEO of the Empowered Musician, a company which does just that—empowering musicians through guidance both artistically as well as in business and career development. In our chat Dana speaks frankly about the problems in academia and the music industry as well as the possibilities of negotiating a correlating career with a career in music.
Dr. Dana Lynne Varga is the Founder and CEO of The Empowered Musician, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of MassOpera, and an accomplished classical singer, voice teacher and career coach.
In addition to maintaining a full private voice studio for over 15 years, highlights of Dana’s teaching career have included seven years on the voice and opera faculty at the BU Tanglewood Institute, two years on the full-time voice faculty at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and two years on the voice faculty at the New England Conservatory Prep school. She is currently on the voice faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dana regularly performs a wide variety of repertoire on opera and concert stages. Recently she made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Mid-America Productions. Dana’s 2019 appearance as Pallas Athene in Gluck’s rarely heard Paride ed Elena with Odyssey Opera garnered critical acclaim.
Other recent notable engagements include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with The Cantata Singers, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Wellesley Symphony and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with Coro Allegro. Favorite operatic roles performed include Musetta in La bohème, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Micaëla in Carmen, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, and the title role in Alcina.
Dana won the Second Place American Prize for Art Song and Oratorio in 2019 and was the Winner of the professional division of the national Classical Singer Competition in 2016. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree in Vocal Performance from Boston University, the Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Websites and Social Media:
Instagram: @danalynnevarga and @theempoweredmusician