His sensational technique, deep musicality, wide range of interest have made Dénes Várjon one of the most exciting and highly regarded participants of international musical life. He is a universal musician: excellent soloist, first-class chamber musician, artistic leader of festivals, highly sought-after piano pedagogue.
Widely considered as one of the great chamber musicians, Dénes works regularly with pre-eminent partners including Steven Isserlis, Tabea Zimmermann, Kim Kashkashian, Jörg Widmann, Leonidas Kavakos, András Schiff , Heinz Holliger, Miklós Perényi, and Joshua Bell. As a soloist, he is a welcome guest at major concert series, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Vienna’s Konzerthaus and London’s Wigmore Hall. He is frequently invited to work with many of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, including Budapest Festival Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Russian National Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Among the conductors he has worked with are Sir Georg Solti, Sándor Végh, Iván Fischer, Ádám Fischer, Heinz Holliger, Horst Stein, Leopold Hager, and Zoltán Kocsis. He appears regularly at leading international festivals from Marlboro to Salzburg and Edinburgh. Before his retirement, Alfred Brendel had a close cooperation with Dénes: their joint Liszt project was presented, among others, in the UK and Italy.
Dénes performs frequently with his wife Izabella Simon, playing four hands and two-pianos recitals together. In the past decade they have organised and led several chamber music festivals, the most recent one being Kamara.Hu at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest.
Dénes has recorded for Naxos, Capriccio and Hungaroton labels with critical acclaim. Teldec released his CD with Sándor Veress’s ‘Hommage à Paul Klee’, performed with András Schiff, Heinz Holliger and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. His recording ‘Hommage à Géza Anda’, (PAN-Classics Switzerland) received important international echoes. His solo CD with pieces of Berg, Janáček and Liszt was released in 2012 by ECM. In 2015 he recorded the Schumann piano concerto with the WDR Symphonieorchester and Heinz Holliger, and all five Beethoven piano concertos with Concerto Budapest and András Keller.
Dénes graduated from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in 1991, where his professors included Sándor Falvai, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados. Parallel to his studies he was a regular participant at international master classes with András Schiff. Dénes won first prize at the Piano Competition of Hungarian Radio, the Leó Weiner Chamber Music Competition in Budapest, and the Géza Anda Competition in Zurich. He was awarded with the Liszt, Sándor Veress, and Bartók-Pásztory Prize. In 2020 he received Hungary’s supreme award in culture, the Kossuth Prize. Dénes also works for Henle’s Urtext Editions.