ČIURLIONIS STRING QUARTET
JONAS TANKEVIČIUS (I violin)
DARIUS DIKĐAITIS (II violin)
GEDIMINAS DAČINSKAS (viola)
SAULIUS LIPČIUS (cello)
Čiurlionis Quartet, one of the most dynamic Lithuanian chamber music ensembles, has been active for 37 years now. It formed in 1968 when his members still studied in the Lithuanian Music Academy. Later, the ensemble improved its skills and artistic technique under professors Dmitri Shebalin, Vladimir Ovcharek and Vilmos Tatrai – the Borodin, Taneyev and Tatrai quartet members.
Čiurlionis Quartet has prepared many individual concert programmes (it gave over 3,500 concerts), taken part in nearly all festivals in Lithuania and often played abroad. The quartet participated in such festivals as Berliner Festwochen, Spring of Prague, Schléswig – Hólstein,FESTIVAL MITTE EUROPA,Vlaanderen, Moravian Autumn, Janaèkuv Mai, Pietre che Cantano in Italy, Bartok's 100-year anniversary in Budapest, Zalcburg, Freiburg, Stutgart, Duisburg, Meran, Kuhmo, Zagreb, Oslo, Reikjavik, Moscow, St Petersburg, Nizniy Novgorod A Sakharov's, etc. The quartet performed in famous halls such as Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Musee d'Orsay in Paris, London Royal Festival Hall , Otto Braun in Berlin as well as the philharmonic halls of Warsaw and Brussels, in Japan. The Quartet has collaborated with celebrated musicians such as pianists N.Petrov, Ch.Ivaldi, L.Jedlina, L.Natochenny, L.Prayer, clarinetists E.Bruner, E.Vanoosthuyse, Ib Hausmann, D.Ebon, J.Milkis, harpists M.Nordman, F.Sitruk, L.Stephenson, double-bassist G.Hörtnagel, oboe players R.Chisu, M.Bourgue, guitarists R.Evers, A.Gruen and many others. The Quartet’s repertoire amounts to over 300 large scale works.
The quartet now often performs abroad and rarely plays in Lithuania but we often hear about its successful tours in foreign countries. Stylistically, the repertoire of the quartet is very diverse but the ensemble recently started preparing a cycle of monumental monographic programmes (dedicated to W.A.Mozart, B.Bartok, R.Schumann, D.Shostakovics, C.Franck and Fr.Schubert).
In 1990, Čiurlionis Quartet was granted the highest award of the state the Lithuanian National Prize.