Hyperion Records

Tanja Becker-Bender was born in Stuttgart, Germany, into a family of scientists and musicians of Bohemian origin. Early musical success, manifested in top prizes at the international competitions in Geneva (CIEM), Brussels (CIM Chimay), Tokyo (Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award), Houston, Gorizia and Genoa (Premio Paganini), led her to perform as a soloist under the baton of Kurt Masur, Gerd Albrecht, Fabio Luisi, Hartmut Haenchen, Uri Segal and Lothar Zagrosek, with renowned orchestras such as the Tokyo Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Houston Symphony, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart of the SWR, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the Vienna, Zurich, Prague and English chamber orchestras.

Also an avid chamber musician, Tanja Becker-Bender has played in festivals together with Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Boris Pergamenschikow and Arnold Steinhardt, and given recitals in New York, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Paris, London, Rome and Vienna. Since 2009 she has worked regularly with pianist Péter Nagy.

Tanja Becker-Bender studied with some of the world’s leading quartet musicians—Wilhelm Melcher (Melos Quartett), David Takeno, Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartett) and Robert Mann (Juilliard String Quartet)—and received further important impulses from Bartók’s student György Sándor in New York, Eberhard Feltz in Berlin and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. Applying the idealistic approach of chamber music to all genres of music, she constantly strives to reach the essence of each work she performs, and dedicates herself to a wide range of repertoire. Her interest in new music has led her to collaborations with composers such as Cristóbal Halffter and Peteris Vasks, as well as numerous first performances.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung characterized her playing as consisting of ‘completely mature virtuosity and phenomenal intensity of expression and balance’. In 2006 she was appointed one of the youngest-ever professors in Germany, at the University of Music Saarland in Saarbrücken, following Maxim Vengerov. In 2009 she became professor of violin at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. In 2011 she was elected a member of the prestigious Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg.

Tanja Becker-Bender plays on a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù (Cremona 1728), on loan through the Instrument Fund of the German Music Foundation, to which it is entrusted by its private owner.