Based in Paris, Quatuor Tchalik probably stands out for the very fact that it is made up of four siblings. Raised in a Russian-French family in which music plays an important role, they have been making music together since early childhood. This early and intimate contact with chamber music has allowed the four young musicians to develop their own natural approach to expressive as well as creative quartet playing, creating an extraordinary artistic bond between them.
These qualities were immediately apparent at the first international competition in which the quartet participated: At the 2018 International Mozart Competition in Salzburg, Quatuor Tchalik sensationally won first prize as well as the special prize for the best interpretation of a Mozart quartet.
In addition, the quartet has received numerous prizes from renowned foundations and institutions, such as the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena or as part of the Tremplin de la Philharmonie de Paris. In addition, the ensemble enjoys the support of the Fondation Safran pour la musique and was named a permanent member of the Paris-based string quartet talent academy ProQuartet at the end of 2017, as well as a scholarship recipient of the Akademie des Heidelberger Frühlings in 2019.
In the process, concerts regularly take Quatuor Tchalik throughout Europe, including the major music centers of Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, as well as to Asia, where they debuted to great acclaim in China in 2019. In their native France, they are a welcome guest at the Paris Philharmonie and made their much-acclaimed debut at the prestigious Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris in late 2021. In addition, the siblings can also be regularly experienced as a quintet, then supplemented by their brother Dania Tchalik on piano.
Highlights of the 22/23 season include concerts at the Philharmonics of Dresden and Cologne, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and at numerous festivals, such as the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and the renowned String Quartet Festival in Pays de Fayence.
Past festival invitations have included inspiring performances at home and abroad, such as at the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Midis Minimes in Brussels, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Flâneries Musicales de Reims, the Mozartfest Würzburg or the String Quartet Biennale of the Philharmonie de Paris. The quartet also appears regularly on European radio, including France Musique, Radio Classique, Musiq'3 (RTBF), SWR2, Espace 2 (RTS) and BBC 3.
Quatuor Tchalik laid the foundation for this success back in 2016, when they were accepted at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid in the class of Günter Pichler, a founding member of the Alban Berg Quartet. In addition, the quartet received further important impulses from such well-known chamber musicians as Jan Talich and Vladimír Bukač (Quatuor Talich), Yovan Markovitch (Quatuor Danel), Luc-Marie Aguerra (Quatuor Ysaÿe), Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet), Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet) or Krzysztof Chorzelski (Belcea Quartet). Not least thanks to these valuable experiences, which at the same time reflect the great diversity of the European musical tradition, the Tchalik siblings were able to develop their large classical and romantic repertoire, which distinguishes them today.
In addition, however, the quartet is also enthusiastic about contemporary repertoire and is strongly committed to the creation and premiere of new compositions. As such, they have premiered works by composers such as Jacques Boisgallais, Michèle Reverdy, and Bastien David. On their first album released in 2019, titled "Short Stories," which immediately won the Choc de Classica, they succeed with chamber works by Thierry Escaich, with whom the siblings have long enjoyed a close collaboration. In 2020, Quatuor Tchalik premiered Pierre Farago's Quale stormo d'augei notturno at the Philharmonie de Paris. The ensemble's subsequent second CD was devoted to the chamber music of Reynaldo Hahn and was awarded the ffff by Télérama. A third CD with the quartets of Camille Saint-Saëns was released in September 2021 and also received the Choc de Classica in addition to countless enthusiastic reviews.
The entire Quatuor Tchalik plays on instruments and bows created explicitly for the quartet by violin maker Philippe Mitéran and bow maker Konstantin Cheptitski, underscoring the extraordinary chemistry within the ensemble.