Born in Paris, Tania began learning the violin at the age of nine, later achieving a violin diploma at the Regional Conservatoire of Rueil-Malmaison. Tania moved to Switzerland to complete her bachelor’s degree at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève before continuing her studies with a Master of Arts in Performance with Sergey Ostrovsky, and has completed a Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana.
As a student in Switzerland, Tania was fortunate to play under the baton of Emmanuel Krivine, Kazuki Yamada and Tomas Netopil and has participated in several master classes with Ivry Gitlis, Stefan Picard, Sylvie Gazeau and Olivier Charlier.
During her studies, Tania won a bursary to play for a year as Principal Second Violin with La Sinfonietta de Genève, performing as a soloist with the orchestra for various concerts including Haydn’s Symphonie Concertante for violin, cello, oboe and bassoon. Tania has also appeared as a soloist at the festival of the International Music Academy of Solsona in Spain and performed a concerto for four violins with the orchestra of the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana.
A keen chamber musician, Tania plays regularly with a quartet, recently winning a competition to perform a concert at the Theatre du Passage of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). Tania also plays regularly as a violin-piano duo and currently performs as a member of the chamber orchestra of Lugano.
Which three people, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with and why?
Ella Fitzgerald: because she is an impressive musician who made herself practise and make progress throughout her career. When you see videos of her or old recordings she is always happy, laughing and making jokes on stage. She gives me the impression of an easy and happy artist.
Frida Kahlo: first because I love her work, and other than that because she is a strong personality with strong feminist and political beliefs. You definitely can’t get bored having dinner with her.
John Irving: I have read most of his work and I remain amazed by his imagination, fantasy and humour. Meeting him would be very intimidating and exiting.
What is your most embarrassing or amusing musical moment?
When I did the entrance exam at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana for the pedagogy master, no one told me that when you pass the instrumental audition you have to give a lesson in front of a jury… in Italian. At the time I didn’t know a word of Italian so I asked the other candidates to translate for me some key sentences in order to explain to my student that I was about to give her a lesson without talking. I was very lucky to have a very nice and patient student in front of me and I was accepted in the programme.
Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
Three years ago I received an email from a friend telling me that she decided to make a trip to Asia by herself, as at this time she was living in Australia. She asked me if I wanted to join her for a few weeks. Two weeks later I bought a plane ticket, a bag and a guide of Thailand and told her that she could meet me in Bangkok. We got lost, scared, and had the best time of our life.