Hubay was trained in violin and music by his father, Karl Huber [hu] (Károly Huber, later Károly Hubay [de]) from Varjas (Romanian: Variaș), concertmaster of the Hungarian Royal Opera House and a teacher at the Budapest College of Music.

His concertos incorporate themes from Hungarian music, and his "gentle breeze" pieces, which share features of the compositional style of his chamber music partner, David Popper, continue the tradition of the German romantics such as Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.

Hubay's output also contains several operas, including The Venus of Milo, The Violin-Maker of Cremona, The Mask and Anna Karenina (after Leo Tolstoy).

[3] The opening of The Venus of Milo is based on whole tone scales and archaisms that perhaps are meant to suggest the ancient setting.

[4] The Hubay prize has been awarded by the Franz Liszt Academy of Music to a number of eminent violinists: