Violoncello

Tamás Varga was born in Budapest in 1969. He is now able to look back on a career spanning over 25 years as principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. His solo performances with this orchestra count without doubt amongst the most illustrious of his career. Performances of the Beethoven “Triple Concerto” under Giuseppe Sinopoli in 2000, Schumann Cello Concerto under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach in the 2005/2006 season, Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote” under Zubin Mehta in 2009, the Dvorak Cello Concerto in March 2017 under Andris Nelsons were all critically acclaimed by the press. 
In 2019 Tamás Varga, along with his colleague Albena Danailova and the world renowned pianist Rudolf Buchbinder performed the Triple Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven, once again under the direction of Andris Nelsons. 
As a soloist he has visited every continent and worked together with famous conductors, including Frédéric Chaslin, Ádám Fischer, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Pinchas Steinberg and Michael Tilson Thomas. Together with Michael Tilson Thomas he shares the deep conviction that the passing on of knowledge and experience to young musicians constitutes a very important responsibility.  
Tamás Varga gives masterclasses throughout the world, most recently in Australia, China, Vietnam, Japan and the USA (New York, Berkeley, Miami and Chicago). He makes use of the most modern technology and teaches for example via the internet. The tutoring of the cello section of the Youtube Symphony Orchestra in Sydney also offered him new stimuli. 
Projects such as his participation in 2018 in the memorial concert of the National Youth Orchestra of Chile and Venezuela, an invitation extended by Gustavo Dudamel, reinforce Tamás Varga’s belief in working together with young musicians in order to discover the connecting, strengthening and redeeming power of music. 
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Tamás Varga performs regularly at famous music festivals in Europe such as the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, the Budapest Spring Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival. In 2018 as a part of the Salzburg Festival he performed with Vienna Philharmonic colleages in a widely publicized chamber music event at the Salzburg Mozarteum. His chamber music partners include amongst others, Ferenc Bognár, Rudolf Buchbinder, Frédéric Chaslin, Christopher Hinterhuber, Karl Leister, Bobby McFerrin, Daniel Ottensamer, Karl Heinz Schütz und Tamás Vásáry, as well as the Bartók Quartet and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra.
In the past several years Tamás Varga has recorded more than 25 CDs for the recording companies Camerata Tokyo, Naxos, Hungaroton, King Records and Cavalli Records.