In 2022, an exceptional collaboration with composer Philip Glass will see the creation of his String Quartet No. 9 - based on the original King Lear score created for Broadway. The Tana Quartet will give its unique sound to this Shakespearean score by linking the American maestro's composition with the work of one of his favorite composers, Franz Schubert, as well as the young and hyper-awarded Caroline Shaw. This new work will be premiered at Bozar-Brussels and will then tour national stages in France, as well as theaters in Belgium, England, and the United States.

When Philip Glass was asked to compose the incidental music for a Broadway production of King Lear in 2019, he knew right away that he wanted a string quartet: "I know how to write for a string quartet. I love its breadth of emotion."
Indeed, this concert version of the incidental music is his ninth work for quartet, a lineup highlighted to depict the turbulence, violence, and despair at the heart of Shakespeare's tragedy.

To capture the world of King Lear in music, Glass immersed himself in the historical context that would have influenced its conception: "I began to imagine what it would have been like to see this play for the first time in 1606. The Powder Conspiracy had taken place only a few months earlier, in November, and the theaters had remained closed until spring. If the insurgents had been successful, the entire government, including the king, would have collapsed. It was a stunning event that tore England apart. The notion that a portion of the population would have tried to overthrow the government - that was amazing."

For the original Broadway version, the composer spent several weeks observing the actors in rehearsal, absorbing the piece during the day, and composing at night. In this concert version, the striking landscape unfolds through the repetitive structures, oscillating harmonies, and rhythmic beats for which Philip Glass is known - all punctuated by chilling textures to herald the furious storm to come.

"Magnificent performers" (The Guardian), from Paris to the whole world, his reputation now precedes him.
Just as in the arcanes of classical music, where the TANA Quartet has been pushing back the walls for a decade.
Ten years of scouring the world's most beautiful concert halls, to the sound of some 250 creations to date.
Ten years of sharing and commitment, thanks to social dissemination, research and teaching.
Ten years of envy, crowned by prestigious awards.

Since 2010, the TANA Quartet has enjoyed combining their scores in all tenses. Driven by the desire to create, TANA combines aesthetics, decompartmentalizes them, confronts them, compares them, reinventing the link between past and future, forging its own tradition. The quartet honors several commissions per season, performs in the most famous concert halls - from the Philharmonie de Paris to the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, including the Villa Medici in Rome and the Konzerthaus in Vienna - and has won many prestigious prizes: 1st HSBC Laureate of the Academy of the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, Coup de Coeur of the Académie Charles Cros, Fuga Prize, Octaves de la musique.

Create & experiment
A recognized player in contemporary music, the TANA Quartet works closely with composers from around the world, having premiered more than 250 works, including those by Ivan Fedele, Philippe Hurel, Hèctor Parra, and many others. The quartet contributed to the rise of the saturation movement in collaboration with Franck Bedrossian, Raphaël Cendo, and Yann Robin, whose works appear on the album Shadows. Its discography includes twelve albums, notably the complete string quartets of Philip Glass (CHOC Classica 2018) and recently Bleu Ébène, comprising all the string quartets of composer David Achenberg.The TANA Quartet has also turned to musical research, becoming the privileged partner of several national creation centers such as IRCAM, GMEM, GRAME, Art Zoyd, and the Centre Henri Pousseur. In 2015 the quartet created its own electroacoustic instruments, the TanaInstruments. TANA then signed with composer Juan Gonzalo Arroyo the first piece for TanaInstruments, Smaqra, a composition that called for others gathered on the VOLTS CD, marking "a milestone in the history of the quartet genre" (classiquenews.com).

Transmitting & sharing
This desire to explore has gradually pushed the quartet towards teaching and transmitting their musical knowledge. A regular guest of institutions such as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Shanghai Conservatory, TANA created in 2018 a summer academy, ARCO (in partnership with the Mozarteum Salzburg, the GMEM, the Multilateral and Métaboles ensembles), focused on musical creation and aimed at the youngest talents.
In order to share its projects even more widely, the quartet willingly leaves the usual concert circuit through original and participative projects. Within this framework, supported by the DRAC Hauts-de-France, their social diffusion projects were born, which take TANA to cities, supermarkets, EPHADS, and hospitals to bring today's music to everyone in a didactic and relaxed way.