The SpiriTango Quartet


Closeness, friendship, enthusiasm and creativity: these four words sum up the SpiriTango Quartet.

In their seven-year existence, they have explored a huge and varied repertoire ranging through traditional tango, tango nuevo, contemporary music and first performances.

After studies at the Paris Conservatory, notably with Ami Flammer and Jean-Noël Crocq, in 2013 they released their first critically acclaimed album, Rage, devoted to the music of Astor Piazzolla. This was followed in March 2015 by a second release, Chin Chin, on the Paraty/Harmonia Mundi label, which saw them tackling other composers. This disc was selected as CD of the week by the Brazilian radio station Cultura FM. They have undertaken further study with Richard Galliano (at the Académie de Villecroze, at which they were invited), Hervé Sellin and Juan José Mosalini, as well as participating in masterclasses with the Ébène Quartet.

They have performed in venues across France and beyond (including the Metz Opera House; the Invalides, the Sorbonne, the Paris Chamber Music Centre and the Salle Cortot in Paris; the Lyon Opera Amphitheatre; the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Charleroi; the Royal Conservatory of Brussels; and the Studio Ernest Ansermet in Geneva), and have been invited to perform at numerous festivals, including the Radio France Montpellier Festival, the Sully-sur-Loire Festival, Piano Campus, les Pianissimes, Musique en Bourbonnais, Midis-Minimes and the Internationale Konzerttage Mittelrhein. They are becoming established across Europe, performing in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and their performances are frequently broadcast by France Musique, France Inter, RFI, FIP, Radio Classique and the Swiss station Espace 2.

Their artistic focus is on original acoustic interpretations at the meeting-point of tango and chamber music, in which the rich traditions and the demands of the two musical worlds cross-fertilise one another. Moreover, with a view to developing the repertoire for their ensemble, they make a point of premiering and promoting new works by contemporary composers, with a particular emphasis on the younger generation. They have worked with Graciane Finzi, Alexandre Fontaines, Mathieu Stefanelli, Celia Triplet and Étienne Kippelen, and in 2018 they will give the first performance of a suite composed by the jazz pianist Olivier Calmel. They have also developed a special relationship with the Belgian composer Frédéric Devreese, who has arranged a number of his works for them.

After successful collaborations with the guitarist Tomas Gubitsch and the Ballet de Lorraine, they plan to present a programme of sung tango with the mezzosoprano Cecilia Meltzer and to inaugurate a partnership with the percussionist Vassilena Serafimova, while also preparing to tour South America in 2019 and 2020 and working on a new album, to be released in September 2018.