San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in , Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West, Twyla Tharp and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, Varga created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” He won three first-place awards at the 2024 San Diego SPJ Pro Chapter Awards.
