Martin Schwarz

Martin Schwarz

Martin Schwarz was born in Basel, Switzerland into a musician's family, since his father was a conductor and his mother a ballet dancer.

He started the guitar as an autodidact at age 15 and received his first real tuition when he turned 19.

He then studied guitar at the Academy of Music in Vienna with Walter Würdinger and Luciano Contini. He took part in masterclasses with Hubert Käppel, Oscar Ghiglia, Alvaro Pierri and many others. His most influential teacher was David Russell.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has been performing in Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Italy and Greece.

CD releases with works by Stefan Soewandi were published in 1997 and 1999 ("Echoing Silence" and "Dewa" (Kreuzberg Records Berlin).

He is a founding member of the guitar quartet "Guitar4mation". With this ensemble, Martin Schwarz has been touring since 1993. CD releases: 1996 "...From a Hidden Street" (Polski Nagrania Edition), 2006 "Pulse.Sound.Joy.Heart.", 2010 "Sonada del Alma", 2014 "Trans4mation" (all with Gramola, Vienna). A new CD is in the pipeline, scheduled release 2023.

An important part of his artistic work is arranging and composing music for guitar (from solo pieces to orchestra arrangements). His works are being published at Productions D'Oz, Canada.

He has been teaching for many years in various music schools in Austria. From 2012-2016, he conducted and taught the guitar ensemble at the University of Music in Vienna.

In 2015, he was appointed professor for guitar at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria, where he teaches artistic and pedagogical bachelor and master students. From 2019 to 2022, he was also director of this university's string department.