TRANSFORMING THE ‘TRADITIONAL’ MINDSET
A leading voice for progressive change in the music industry, Dr. Dana Lynne Varga is a clinician, lecturer, and speaker.
Dana brings extensive experience as an entrepreneur, artistic director, performer, voice teacher, lecturer, and writer to her life's work of empowering artists.
Dana is on a mission to transform long-held approaches to artist careers. She regularly writes and speaks about creating a sustainable and fulfilling career in the arts, building a financially stable present and future, entrepreneurship, dealing with burnout and much more.
Previous speaking engagements include Opera America, Juilliard, NATS, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Harvard University, Classical Singer Competition, Boston Singers' Resource, and many others.
More about Dana
Dana has been working as a life and career coach for ten years, and has taught voice and performed for over twenty. A graduate of two intensive coach training courses through Graydin Coaching, Dana draws on her breadth of experience and deep industry knowledge to help musicians find and embrace their own authentic career path. Dana enjoys working with creative clients of all ages and from all walks of life. She also trained with master coach Colleen Koch through the Neurokind Academy, and works regularly with neurodiverse clients and those who need help with executive function.
In addition to maintaining a full private voice studio with a waiting list for over 20 years, Dana served for seven years on the voice faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, seven years on the voice and opera faculty at the BU Tanglewood Institute, two years on the full-time voice faculty at UMass Amherst, and two years on the voice faculty at the New England Conservatory Prep school. She founded MassOpera, a 501c3 non-profit opera company, in 2007 and served as Artistic Director for 17 years. She is now MassOpera's Artistic Advisor.
As a classical soprano, Dana regularly performs a wide variety of repertoire on the opera and concert stages. She has recently appeared as the soloist in the Brahms, Mozart and Fauré Requiems as well as Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass at Carnegie Hall. She sang the role of Clorinda in Rossini's La Cenerentola with Boston Lyric Opera in 2023 and covered the role of Leontine in Bologne's L'amant anonyme with Boston Lyric Opera in 2024.
Dana holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree from Boston University, Master of Music (MM) degree from New England Conservatory and Bachelor of Music (MM) degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
