Tatjana Chircop

Musician

Biography

Tatjana Chircop started violin and piano at an early age and joined the Manoel Theatre Orchestra as a violinist in 1988. 

In 1991 she won the Bice Mizzi Vassallo music competition and was awarded a scholarship at the Conservatoire National De Region, Lyon, France, where she studied with Veronique Riou and Roger Germser. In 1995 she was admitted as Fellow of the Trinity College, London.  Between 1997 and 2002, she was the principal second violinist of the National Orchestra, Malta and later the sub-leader of the same orchestra. Between 1989 and 2007 she taught violin and piano at the Johann Strauss School of Music, Valletta.

Chircop has formed part of a number of chamber groups including Issa Ensemble, Musique de Chambre: Pro Arte and the Almaz quartet. She was a member of the Equinox Trio which specialized in contemporary music and has performed contemporary works by composers such as Edward Manukian and Man-Ching Donald Yu. She is currently a member of VIBE (Valletta International Baroque Ensemble) as well as a member of the Janascharco Trio which has recorded CDs and premiered works by the Maltese composer Prof Joseph Vella and John Simpson. 

She has recorded for Maltese television and radio and has premiered works for French composer Jean Bouvard and various Maltese composers including Jes Grixti, Mariella Cassar, Karl Fiorini, Chris Muscat, Manuel Pirotta, Veronique Vella and Ruben Zahra. Her performances as soloist and in chamber ensembles have taken her to Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland, Belgium, Syria and North Korea where she performed in various festivals including the Aberdeen Festival and the Victoria Arts Festival where she has also conducted violin master classes. 

Apart from performing, Chircop has pursued doctoral studies where in her research, Chircop combines the gendered nature of identity formation of young women and the music they listen to. The research focuses on how young Maltese women make meaning out of the music they listen to in their everyday lives and how they incorporate this meaning into everyday discourses and identities.