“Marie Stockmarr Becker draws a rich, unforced tone from her 1776 Joseph Hill viola, enhancing its mellow timbre with a restrained but tellingly sweetening vibrato.”
– The Strad Magazine, 2021
Marie pursues a diverse musical path, engaging in a wide range of musical expressions, including early music on period instruments, contemporary music, improvisation and performance. Versatile and playful, she explores musical borderlands through the voice of her instrument, the viola.
Currently based in southern Sweden, Marie performs with ensembles across Scandinavia, Europe and beyond. She is a member of Nordic Affect, Concerto Copenhagen, Basel Sinfonietta, and she collaborates with modern and early music ensembles such as Enghave Barok (DK), Göteborg Baroque (SE), Arte dei Suonatori (PL), Theatre of Voices (DK/UK) and Rudersdal Chamber Players (DK).
A dedicated and curious chamber musician with a particular passion for the viola’s early repertoire, Marie enjoys highlighting her instrument and bringing rarely performed music to the forefront. Among other projects, she has played early 19th-century music for viola, flute, and guitar with the Biedermeier trio and researched the viola’s rare stylus phantasticus repertoire from the Codex Rost. In duo with Ilaria Macedonio, she explores the early repertoire for viola and harpsichord; their debut album with music by J.S. Bach was released in 2021 on Channel Classics Records and their next album will be released in September 2024.
In the Icelandic group Nordic Affect, Marie enjoys performing and co-creating new music on period instruments. Their latest album Rökkur created in collaboration with Maja S.K. Ratkje, was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy and listed top ten of the best contemporary music releases in Sweden in 2023. As principal violist of the Basel Sinfonietta, an orchestra specialized in new music, Marie toured Switzerland, Europe and Japan, collaborating with artists such as Laurie Anderson and Heinz Holliger. Over the years, she has presented numerous chamber music and orchestral world premieres.
Marie studied with Françoise Gnéri at the Conservatoire National de Région de Rueil-Malmaison (FR) before completing a master’s degree at the Music Academy of Basel and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (CH), with Geneviève Strosser and David Plantier as her principal teachers. She further specialized in early music at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen with Peter Spissky, Arek Golinski, and Ketil Haugsand. In 2018, Marie won the American Bach Soloists Academy scholarship, and in 2019, she was awarded the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme scholarship.
In 2024, Marie received a one-year work grant from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee to develop her projects around the early viola repertoire. Other upcoming projects include a collaboration with composer Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir, an album recording with Nordic Affect, and further development of Ecotones – a series of artistic collaborations exploring the creative process.