Photo credit: David Rodriguez
The project “Co-creating Virtuosity” challenges the historically problematic notion of virtuosity in music from a performer’s perspective and reproposes a new concept in the context questioning a hierarchical approach and suggesting a new methodology for the praxis of music creation. It aims to explore the social mechanics of interaction between composer, performer, instrument and score, by bringing forth a co-creative model of collaboration. My methodology draws on co-creative collaborations with composers, presentations of their works in form of concert performances, as well as work-, site-, and context-specific reflections through my own practice.
Who or what is responsible for the emergence of meaning in a musical work? Even today the creative responsibilities of composers and performers are frequently viewed from a hierarchy-based perspective. Is virtuosity simply a reference to technical prowess and the ability to provide “error-free” performance? Or is it a force that is implied by the structure of a composition and informs the performer's corporeal-performative experience and their embodied knowledge of their instruments? And if so, how does this force affect the composer's experience embodied in the score and how does it inform the performer's strategies at the moment of performance?
The motivation behind my research is to reassess the notions inherent to power relations within the Western classical musical canon and to develop a methodology for approaching music as a shared creative activity.
I argue that virtuosity is not merely an indication of technical proficiency, but a co-creative agency that allows the performer to develop their “music-instrumental knowledge”1. Thus, the notion of virtuosity is inherent in every performance. In other words, virtuosity is for the benefit of the many, not a privilege reserved for the few.
Bio
Sergej Tchirkov (*1980, St. Petersburg) is accordion performer, curator and researcher based in Bergen.
His interest in new music has led him to numerous collaborations with composers, such as Pierluigi Billone, Hanna Eimermacher, José María Sánchez Verdú, Ivan Fedele, Tamara Friebel, Klaus Lang, Dmitri Kourliandski, Elena Rykova, Dieter Schnebel, Alfred Zimmerlin, Gérard Zinsstag, Ida Lunden, Sergej Newski, Thomas Kessler and more. Around 300 works for accordion have been premiered by Tchirkov.
Sergej Tchirkov has performed with leading European orchestras under Teodor Currentzis, Titus Engel, Wladimir Jurowski and Susanne Mälkki, and has been a guest musician of Collegium Novum Zürich, musicAeterna, ensemble Garage Köln, ensemble Interface Frankfurt, KNM Berlin, United Berlin, ENMZ, Batida Genève a.o.
Tchirkov has lectured at many universities of music in Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne, Oslo, Gothenburg, Astana, Kuopio. In 2013 - 2021 he was deputy artistic director of the Studio for New Music ensemble and university lecturer in contemporary music at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
He currently works as a PhD research fellow in artistic research at the University of Bergen, Department of Fine Arts, Music and Design, the Grieg Academy.
His most recent curatorial and artistic activities include anti-war concerts in solidarity with Ukraine.