Tanja Becker-Bender

Tanja Becker-Bender, a violinist and music educator from Germany, grew up in Stuttgart, where her earliest instruction took place before she pursued further training in Salzburg, Freiburg, and London under Wilhelm Melcher, Helmut Zehetmair, Wolfgang Marschner, and David Takeno. She later obtained a master of music degree from the Juilliard School, working there with Robert Mann. Having begun her concert career at eleven, she has collaborated with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and numerous chamber groups and smaller ensembles. Regular appearances at festivals across the United States, Europe, and Israel have placed her alongside Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Boris Pergamenschikow, Arnold Steinhardt, and, most prominently, pianist Péter Nagy in recital. Her commitment to contemporary composition has led to projects with Cristóbal Halffter, Peter Ruzicka, and Peteris Vasks. Though she maintains residences in Berlin and Hamburg, her teaching posts have included Saarbrücken, Vienna, and Hamburg; in 2011 she was elected to the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg.