great Violin Concertos as well as the important Violin Sonatas and Concert Pieces. In addition, from the beginning of his career, Tibor Varga devoted himself to contemporary music, of which he became a pioneer. In particular, his interpretations (premières) and recordings of the Violin Concertos and other compositions by Béla Bartók, Alban Berg and Arnold Schönberg have raised these works to the status of "classics" of the repertoire and given them a prime position in international musical life. Among others, Varga played the Australian Première of Alban Berg's Violin Concerto and in 1949, the Violin Concerto by Arnold Schönberg. The composer himself 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." (Schönberg, Letters). The Schönberg Violin Concerto, like the Violin Concertos by Berg, Shostakovich and other works, were also interpreted by Tibor Varga at the BBC Promenade Concerts in the London Royal Albert Hall. Furthermore, he gave the Austrian Première of the Violin Concerto by Strawinsky as well as the World Premières of numerous compositions partly also dedicated to him, such as the Violin Concertos by Boris Blacher, Ernst Krenek, Gösta Nyström, Almeida Prado, Matyas Seiber and Winfried Zillig. From the beginning of the 1950s, Varga enjoyed equal success as a conductor. His conducting career led to the establishment, in 1954, of a chamber orchestra bearing his name (Kammerorchester Tibor Varga) at Detmold, Germany, as well as to that of the Tibor Varga Festival Orchestra (1964–2001) at Sion. He was chief conductor and artistic director of these ensembles as well as – from 1989 to 1993 – of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie (France). In addition, Tibor Varga had regularly been invited as a guest conductor to orchestras of international renown. Pedagogic activities After World War II, Varga in his home town Győr was co-founder and first professor of a Music Academy associated to the Budapest Franz Liszt Academy. In 1947, he established himself in London. In 1949, he became professor at the newly founded Detmold High School of Music (Hochschule für Musik Detmold). Charged to establish the String Department, for which he was asked to become the Head, Varga, with cellist André Navarra and violists Bruno Giuranna and Nobuko Imai, created a string school of world renown. Since the 1950s, Varga has equally been jury member or president in the leading