Istvan Varga studied cello with Victor Jakovcic, Mező László and Maurice Gendron.

Until 1999, he lived and worked in Yugoslavia where he was a professor of cello and chamber music at the Academy of Music in Novi Sad and Belgrade, as well as head of the String Department and vice-dean at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad. There he established and led the chamber orchestra Camerata Academica which, at the time, became one of the most respected and well-known orchestras in ex-Yugoslavia.
He was a founder and a member of the highly acclaimed Goldberg String Trio, one of the best chamber ensembles of ex-Yugoslavia.

He was honoured by the Association of Yugoslav Composers for his exceptional contribution to the development of Yugoslav music.

Prominent Yugoslav composers Despic, Eric, Suklar and Stefanovic dedicated their works to Istvan Varga.
Since 1999 he has been living in Hungary, where he teaches cello at Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.

As a soloist he performed in major festivals in Yugoslavia and Hungary, as well as prestigious concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Salle Gaveau and Rachmaninov Hall. As a chamber musician he performed with Valerij Affanasijev, Konstantin Bogino, Fejérvári Zoltán, Ian Fountain, Erika Geldsetzer , Keller András, Rohmann Imre, Aleksandar Madjar, Albert Markov, J.M.Philips-Varjabedian, Pavel Vernikov, Marine Yashvili, and many others.

Since 2004 he has been performing regularly with pianist Csalog Gábor.

He is a member of Auer Trio.