Gilbert Varga, son of the celebrated Hungarian violinist Tibor Varga, works extensively with symphony orchestras all over the world. In North America he enjoys regular relationships with orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and St Louis Symphony. In Europe, he works regularly with major orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra of the Frankfurt Museumsgesellschaft, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the 2015/16 season he made his débuts with the Tonkünstler Orchestra at Vienna’s Musikverein and further afield with the Macao Orchestra. In May 2013 Varga was appointed principal conductor of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Gilbert Varga studied under Franco Ferrara, Sergiu Celibidache and Charles Bruck. In the earlier part of his conducting career Varga concentrated on work with chamber orchestras, particularly the Tibor Varga Chamber Orchestra, before rapidly developing a reputation as a symphonic conductor. He was chief conductor of the Hofer Symphoniker (1980–85) and chief conductor of the Philharmonia Hungarica in Marl (1985–90), conducting its début tour to Hungary with Yehudi Menuhin. He was also permanent guest conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (1991–95) and principal guest conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1997–2000). In 1997 Varga became music director of the Basque National Symphony Orchestra, leading them through ten seasons, including tours across the UK, Germany, Spain and South America.
