Kálmán comes from a family of musicians. He was born in 1947, and his father, József Záborszky, was a conductor and a composer. His first instrument was the cello, beginning under the tutelage of Miklós Zsámboki. He graduated as a cellist at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. His professors were Frigyes Sándor, András Mihály and Antal Friss. He continued his studies at the Academy of Music in Vienna where he was able to study with the great cellist-professor André Navarra.
He was the director of the St. Stephen School of Music for 25 years. He established a unique orchestral workshop there, inspiring generations of young musicians and directing a great number of students towards high culture.
He started playing in the school orchestra (called István Orchestra at the time) at 14, and since 1988 he has been its leading conductor. The orchestra became a professional ensemble in 2006, named Zugló Philharmonia.
The symphony orchestra has given concerts in several countries. In 2013 they played in Berlin at the Young Euro Classic Festival, and a year later they gave a Hungarian programme with enormous acclaim in the Pozsony (Bratislava) Vigadó. The orchestra has also appeared in Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Austria. Recordings conducted by Kálmán Záborszky have been broadcast by the BBC and Euroradio.
Kálmán Záborszky considers it his main mission to enhance the complex art education of children. In addition to several concert series, in 2011 he started a unique programme aimed at schoolchildren, together with musicologist Emőke Solymosi Tari. This is a series encompassing music and other forms of art called “Expedition”.
Záborszky became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts in 2012.
His work has been acknowledged with several prizes over the years. He received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic in 2006. One year later he was awarded a regional Prima Primissima Prize. In 2012 he received the Ferenc Liszt Prize. Since 2015 he has been a Merited Artist of the Hungarian Republic and since March 2018 he has been an Eminent Artist of Hungary.
The Zugló Philharmonia changed its name in December 2020 to St. Stephen Philharmonic Orchestra, and .their new sponsor is Philharmonia Hungary. Kálmán Záborszky is still the artistic director and leading conductor of the ensemble.