Andrea Várnagy

Andrea Várnagy, founder of Magical Music Movement gained her academic qualifications as a concert pianist in Hungary and Germany. Her main mission is to bring classical music closer to children, using poetry and informal talks to promote the understanding of messages from composers, conveyed to us through the notes. Her movement’s focus is to encourage children to play instrumental music and to become regular listeners and later concert goers. To this end the concept of the interactive Magical Music Concert was born, in which short four-hand pieces are performed, along with Hungarian poetry. Since 2018 Andrea Várnagy has regularly been giving four-hand piano concerts with her daughter, Lili Farkas, who studies classical piano at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. Their mother-daughter duet, perhaps unique in the world, creates a special family atmosphere among the audience, providing true inspiration for the children listening to them.

The concerts are hugely popular, forwarding the message of classical music to almost 1.8 million children, all over the Carpathian Basin and overseas. The Movement also gave rise to the Magical Music International Four-Hands Piano Competition which was organised for the fifth time in 2020.

There is also an emphasis on talent development, for which a completely unique method for piano courses was devised, also available online. Her repertoire features Ferenc Liszt’s four-hand piano pieces also.

Andrea Várnagy is considered an eminent representative of four-hand piano playing. Her work was acknowledged with a Budapest Brand Award, Pro Familiis Award, and in 2020, the Ferenc Liszt Award.