Marián Varga

Marián Varga is a composer and keyboardist from Slovakia, born in 1947 in Skalica. He was educated in arts and music from the age of 6, but around the age of 20 he left the Bratislava School of Music after three years without graduating. After leaving the school - he joined the band Prúdy, which he left again after recording their cult album "Zvonte zvonky" (Jingle Bells). Right after he left, the formed the first art rock band of Czechoslovakia, Collegium Musicum. Heavily inspired by The Nice and later Emerson, Lake and Palmer the band became big in their country. Not surprisingly, given their music, Varga got the nick name "The Czechoslovakian Keith Emerson". The band's repertoire was a mixture of own compositions and re-interpretations of classical pieces. In parallel to his work with Collegium Musicum, he made a couple of albums with fromer Prúdy singer Pavol Hammel and other musicians. On these occassions Radmin Hladik or Peter Peteraj would join on guitar. These albums were different, and sometimes called more pop, than the Collegium Musicum albums. On the latter, an interest in avant-garde music began to appear in Varga's compositions. This came to full bloom,a few years after Collegium Musicum was disbanded in 1979, on his solo album "Stále tie dni" - which' style has even been compared to Art Zoyd's. From then on, out of interest, his compositions would be created ever more in the form of what is called 'absolute improvisation' or 'real-time composition'. The agression and bombast of his early Collegium Musicum days do show up regularly, in the form of loud and sometimes atonal progressions. His cooperation with Hammel and Hladik/Peteraj continued into the 1990s, resulting in a few releases. In 1997, Varga reunited once more with Collegium Musicum drummer Dusan Hájek and bassist Fedor Freso to release the album Collegium Musicum 97. Up to 2007, Marián Varga is still active, mainly playing live.