Quatuor Voce

In the last 18 years, the Quatuor Voce has established itself as one of the most eclectic and adventurous string quartets on the classical music scene.

Laureates of numerous international competitions and passionate about defending the great string quartet repertoire, alone or alongside such exceptional musicians as Yuri Bashmet or Gary Hoffman, their concerts take them all over the world, from Helsinki to Cairo, from Tokyo to Bogota. In 2021 the quartet was named « Quartet in Residence » at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, succeeding the legendary Hungarian violinist and founder of the Tacaks Quartet, Gabóor Takács-Nagy.

The past seasons have seen the Voce travelling the globe with tours of Japan, Haïti, Australia and the United States and South America, (in such halls as the Oji Hall in Tokyo, the Teatro Colon in Bogota, the Frick Collection in New York) as well as numerous concerts in Europe, including Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom - notably the Wigmore Hall - and not forgetting many performances in the great French concert halls (Philharmonie de Paris, Opera de Nantes, TAP de Poitiers…). The Voce have been welcomed to such notable international halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Philharmonie in Luxembourg, the BOZAR in Brussels …

The quartet’s recordings of Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Bartok, Janaeck and Schulhoff have all met with high critical acclaim from the international press, such as The Strad, Télérama (FFFF), Suddeutsch Zeitung, Diapason (5 Diapasons) and the Guardian. Their close relationship with the record label Alpha Classics has already given rise to six recordings for both string quartet and in collaboration with renowned artists such as Juliette Hurel, Lise Berthaud, Vincent Segal and Kinan Azmeh. In 2018 they appeared on the label Aparté on the album « Ballad in Red » with Emmanuel Ceysson, harp solo at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in 2019 their interpretation of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet with French clarinetist Florent Héau was be released on the label Klarthe. To celebrate 15 years of existence, in 2019 the Voce recorded both Mozart and Schubert’s 15th string quartets, an album which received high critical acclaim.

The first volume of their newest album, « Poétiques de l’instant » a two-fold project centered around Debussy and Ravel’s string quartets and including new works by Yves Balmer and Bruno Mantovani was released in April 2022 and crowned with Diapason’s Diapason d’Or and a Diamond from Opéra Magazine. The second volume was released in June 2023 to high critical acclaim (Télérama TTT).

Having studied with the Quatuor Ysaye, Günter Pichler (charismatic first violinist of the Alban Berg Quartett), and Eberhard Feltz, the Voce have a strong desire to transmit their experience and passion for chamber music to the younger generation. Since 2010 they have taught in several Paris conservatoires for ProQuartet, and in 2017, with the support of the city of Vendôme and of Monceau Assurances, they created « Quatuor à Vendôme », their own festival-academy dedicated to studying and performing chamber music. More recently they created a second chamber music academy and festival in the remote region of the Ardèche, the Rendez-vous des Princes, which will see it’s third edition in 2023.

Open to the world which surrounds them, they regularly create and commission music by composers of the day, for example Bruno Mantovani, Graziane Finzi, Alexandros Markeas…

Convinced of the relevance of the string quartet formation in our modern society and passionate about sharing their music with a wide audience, the innate curiosity of the Quatuor Voce has brought its members to experiment with many diverse art forms. They frequently give their voice to silent movies, and have shared their universe with such diverse personalities as the « mutant » cellist Vincent Segal, singers Kyrie Kristmanson and Aynur, choreographers Thomas Lebrun and the brothers Ben Aïm, and the accordionist Vincent Peirani. After many encounters with some of the world’s finest world music and jazz musicians, in 2017 the Voce imagined « Itinéraire », a journey through sixteen strings from Brazil to Indonesia, passing through Iran, Cuba and Egypte. A new repertoire situated at the frontier between written and improvised music, freely inspired by the example set by Béla Bartok and created in collaboration with five composers from multiple horizons, the album « Itinéraire » was released in the autumn of 2018 on Alpha Classics.

Their most recent project, Figures Argentines explores different Argentinian musical folklore through the music of Ginastera, Piazzolla and a new work commissioned from young Argentinian composer Fernando Fiszbein, « Gardel Piccado ». Their principal travel companion for this new musical journey is the grand Argentinian guitarist Pablo Marquez, with whom they were in residence at the Abbaye de Royaumont and on tour in Argentina in the springtime of 2023.

The Quatuor Voce would like to particularly thank Monceau Assurances, the DRAC Pays de la Loire, SPEDIDAM, SACEM, the Centre National de la Musique, ADAMI and ProQuartet CEMC for their continued support.

Voce Quartet
Sarah Dayan, Cécile Roubin, violins
Guillaume Becker, viola
Arthur Heuel, cello

July 2024