Academy

Alexis Descharmes, born in 1977, studied cello at the Paris Conservatoire with Michel Strauss and Philippe Muller. He has been a member of the Ensemble Court-circuit since 1998 and collaborates with IRCAM and Ensemble Intercontemporain. In 2006 he became a member of the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris, and in 2016 he was appointed principal cellist of the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine.

Alexis Descharmes is a passionate performer of chamber music, including many interdisciplinary projects. He is the dedicatee of fifty contemporary works, concertos or solos, and his discography includes around fifty recordings as a soloist or with the above-mentioned ensembles. Alexis Descharmes is supported by D'Addario, a string manufacturer (USA).

In 2023, he joined the Quatuor Diotima, which combines his skills in both the romantic and contemporary repertoire.

 

 

The Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today; it was formed in 1996 by graduates of the Paris national conservatory (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris). The quartet’s name evokes a double musical significance: Diotima is at once an allegory of German romanticism – Friederich Hölderlin gives the name to the love of his life in his novel "Hyperion"- and a rallying cry for the music of our time, brandished by Luigi Nono in his composition "Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima".
The Quatuor Diotima has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century, notably Pierre Boulez and Helmut Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new works from the most brilliant composers of our time, including Toshio Hosokawa, Miroslav Srnka, Alberto Posadas, Mauro Lanza, Gérard Pesson, Rebecca Saunders and Tristan Murail. Reflected in the mirror of today’s music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Beethoven, Schubert, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern), as well as Janáček, Debussy, Ravel and Bartók.

In the quartet’s rich discography one finds amongst others, notably, the recording of all six string quartets by Béla Bartók (Naïve, 2019) and their interpretations of the Second Viennese School (Naïve, 2016). In 2021, the quartet released three musical portraits of Gérard Pesson, Enno Poppe and Stefano Gervasoni and one of Mauricio Sotelo. On the occasion of György Ligeti’s 100th birthday in 2023, the quartet is releasing an album dedicated to the composer. This album marks the new collaboration between Quatuor Diotima and the label “Pentatone” and is receiving an incredible positive response. Gramophone Magazine writes, among other things: "this new Quatuor Diotima disc should become the go-to Ligeti string quartets disc for the foreseeable future."

The Diotima Quartet was the first quartet in residence at Radio France from 2019 to 2021. The Diotima Quartet has found a new home in the Grand Est region, sharing strong cultural links with Germany and Switzerland, which resonate with the quartet’s repertoire and partners in Europe. This residency allows the quartet to develop its Academy in partnership with the Cité Musicale-Metz inviting young composers and string quartets from all over the world, a chamber music series in Strasbourg as well as an educational residency at the Ecole Nationale de Lutherie in Mirecourt.

Very active in teaching and training young artists, the Diotima Quartet has recently been an Associate Artist at the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy, an Artist in Residence at the University of Chicago and has been invited to give masterclasses at the University of California in Los Angeles, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the Casa del Quartetto in Reggio Emilia and York University.
Quatuor Diotima regularly performs in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and concert series. The season opens with a tour in Caucasia region, followed by the anniversary concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The Quatuor Diotima has been invited back to the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, Kings Place in London, Bozar Brussels, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Circulo Bellas Artes Madrid, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Amici della Musica Firenze and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In 2024, the Phiharmonie de Paris will host the world premiere of the new string quartet by Augusta Read-Thomas and the work by Marc Monnet. A major tour takes the quartet to Korea, Japan and China in spring 2024.

The Quatuor Diotima is subsidized by the French ministry of Culture and the Région Grand Est and receives support from Centre National de la Musique, Maison de la Musique Contemporaine, Institut Français, SACEM, SPEDIDAM, ADAMI, as well as private donors. The Quatuor Diotima is a member of the PROFEDIM, Futurs Composés and FEVIS professional organizations.

 

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