Leipzig Newcomer: Myrsini Bekakou Quartet

The music of the Myrsini Bekakou Quartet is based on the feelings, thoughts and experiences of its bandleader and combines traditional Greek music with classical jazz tunes. Her violin playing is audibly influenced by her classical training, but at the same time firmly anchored in the present. Whether Bekakou's sound is traditional or modern is therefore the wrong question: it is both at the same time.

In searching for her own voice, she found expressive possibilities in jazz that she lacked in classical music. She is inspired by role models such as Jean-Luc Ponty and Avishai Cohen. In her sound, Bekakou skillfully combines influences from her classical training with electronic elements - determined to find and expand her voice in the bowed and plucked. Torn between respect for the Greek musical tradition and the simultaneous desire to break out of it and discover something new, she tells musical stories between belonging and freedom, between security and risk, between repressive conservatism and innovation. Together with her band, the violinist confidently forms her own version of contemporary jazz from the rhythms and scales of Bekakou's childhood dances and songs. 

With the kind support of the Leipzig Foundation.