PETRA VÁRALLYAY

Petra Várallyay's music is inspired by the harmonic world of modal jazz, the asymmetrical pulsations of Balkan music and the tonal systems of the Far East. Her individual playing style is as rich in contemporary musical timbres as it is in the linguistic idiom of folk music, the informality of jazz or the rawness of rock music. Live looping plays an important role in her solo concerts, opening up a new dimension in the theatrical expression of instruments and vocals. The music, born in the magic of the moment, builds on both concrete compositional ideas and improvisation, turning a single vocal line into a polyphonic choral sound and melancholic soundscapes into dynamic orchestral voices – in an exciting duality of repetition and unrepeatability.

Petra Várallyay studied jazz piano, jazz singing, classical violin and jazz composition at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and the jazz department of the Maastricht Conservatorium in the Netherlands. As a composer and performer, she has worked with Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma, and performed at numerous festivals in Hungary and abroad, covering a wide spectrum of genres. Formed in 2014, her progressive fusion jazz trio has won numerous international awards, including Best Instrumentalist at the 2017 Sibiu International Jazz Competition and the Audience Award at the Independent Music Awards (USA) for independent artists and creators for their album Deadline Haze.