Martynas Švėgžda von Bekker

Martynas Švėgžda von Bekker (born 1967) is a Lithuanian violinist and musical educator.

Life Švėgžda von Bekker started taking violin classes at the age of five from his grandmother E. Strazdas-Bekerienė, student of Leopold von Auer, Jan Mařák, J. Feld and Jacques Thibaud. He gave his first recital at age seven and played his first concert with the “Vilnius Symphony Orchestra″ at age 11.

He premiered the Alfred Schnittke Concert for Violin and Symphony Orchestra no. 1 with Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg's Symphony Orchestra in 1993.

He also performed with the Berliner Symphoniker, the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Lithuanian St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, the chamber orchestra Klaipėda, the Mikkeli chamber orchestra (Finland), the Hamburger Symphoniker as well as the Neue Philharmonie Hamburg and the Gloriamus philharmonia (Indonesia).

He entered his international performing career in Paris. He has performed alongside Hans-Dieter Baum, Igor Uryash, Nikolai Lugansky, Detlef Kraus, Yuri Mazurkevich, Duncan McTier, George Tchitchinadze and more.

His professional range and spectrum were broadened by concerts in the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, at UNESCO in Paris and in the Tchaikovski Hall in Moscow. These experiences also inspired him to create his own compositions.

In 2001, he founded and lead the international and interdisciplinary "Alternative Classical Music Festivals" in Lithuania which took place up till 2011. In the course of those years many famous musicians, personalities and unusual musical, visual and other artistic projects were brought together. He also ran masterclasses.