Cello
The cellist Tamás Varga was born in Budapest in 1969 and graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music there in 1992 with distinction. He has been guided by musicians such as László Mező, Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág, Miklós Perényi and Menahem Pressler, and above all by Uzi Wiesel, who was a leading mentor for him and left a lasting impression on his cello playing. Tamás Varga also studied under Uzi Wiesel as a scholar at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv.
He has been the principal cello in the Vienna Philharmonic for 25 years. He has played under the direction of conductors such as Adam Fischer, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Pinchas Steinberg and Michael Tilson Thomas. Since 2008 he has worked with Tilson Thomas in the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, USA. Tamás Varga also gives masterclasses, most recently in Australia, China, Vietnam, Japan and the USA. His work with young musicians at a tribute concert of the national youth orchestras of Chile and Venezuela in 2018, and in the project ‘Encuentros 21’ in Spain (on both occasions at the invitation of Gustavo Dudamel) has reinforced his belief in working together with young musicians in order to discover music’s connecting power.
As a celebrated chamber musician, Tamás Varga performs regularly at leading festivals in Europe, among them the Wiener Festwochen, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Salzburg Festival. His chamber music partners include Ferenc Bognár, Rudolf Buchbinder, Frédéric Chaslin, Adrian Eröd, Christopher Hinterhuber, Karl Leister, Bobby McFerrin, Daniel Ottensamer, Karl Heinz Schütz, Christoph Traxler and Tamás Vásáry, as well as the Bartók Quartet and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra.
Tamás Varga is especially interested in contemporary works. He has recorded more than thirty CDs, including for the record companies Camerata Tokyo, Naxos, Hungaroton, King Records and Cavalli Records.
