Varga was born in Győr in the same region that witnessed the birth of Joseph Joachim, Leopold Auer, Carl Flesch as well as of the famous conductor Hans Richter.

Due to an injury during the War, Lajos Varga had to abandon his plans to be a concert artist and became a violin maker.

[1] Coming to the attention of Jenő Hubay, Varga was enrolled at the Budapest Franz Liszt Academy when only ten years old, where he studied, among others, with Zoltán Kodály and Leó Weiner.

Varga collaborated with eminent conductors such as Ernest Ansermet, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Igor Markevitch, Hans Rosbaud, Georg Solti and others.

2 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Ferenc Fricsay as well as his versions of the violin concertos by Max Bruch, Mozart, Carl Nielsen, Paganini, Tchaikovsky and others have become major references of musical interpretation.

In particular, his interpretations including premieres and recordings of the violin concertos and other compositions by Béla Bartók, Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg have raised these works to the status of classics of the repertoire and given them a prime position in international musical life.

Schoenberg paid tribute to his enthusiasm by a letter which has become famous: "I wished to be younger to write more music of this kind for you."

Since the 1950s, Varga has equally been jury member or president in the leading international violin and chamber music competitions.

In 1963, at Sion, the capital of the Canton of Valais in Switzerland, he created an Académie de Musique Tibor Varga, specializing in interpretation classes for accomplished young players conducted by leading soloists during the summer.

[3] In 1988, the Ecole Supérieure de Musique, exclusively dedicated to the training of professional string players, was founded at Sion, with Varga responsible as both artistic and teaching director.

[4] Graduates of Varga's school are soloists, concertmasters, professors and members of leading orchestras all over the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, New Japan Philharmonic and others.