Born in Subotica, István Varga studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and the Conservatoire in Paris. As a teacher he returned to his homeland, teaching in the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and the Department of Music in Novi Sad. He founded the Camerata Academica Chamber Orchestra and the Goldberg String Trio, which were soon among the best known ensembles in former Yugoslavia. As artistic director of the Novi Sad Musical Festival he has organized large-scale international chamber music festivals.

Important composers have written pieces for him, and he has won the Prize of the Yugoslav Composers’ Association. He has given concerts in the most renowned concert halls in the world, such as the Wigmore Hall in London, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow, and the Solti Hall in the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

He regularly holds masterclasses in Hungary, Croatia, and France. He settled in Hungary in 1999, and is currently a cello teacher at the Liszt Academy. His longstanding chamber music partner is pianist Gábor Csalog, and they regularly play in concerts together in Hungary and abroad.