The QUATUOR DIOTIMA, formed in 1996 by students of the Paris National Conservatory, is one of the most sought-after chamber ensembles in the world. The quartet's name evokes a double musical meaning: Diotima is both an allegory of German romanticism – Friederich Hölderlin gives this name to the love of his life in his novel “Hyperion” – and a rallying cry for the music of our time , brandished by Luigi Nono in his composition “Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima”.
The Quatuor Diotima has worked in close collaboration with some of the greatest composers of the 20th century, notably Pierre Boulez (who revised his "Livre pour Quatuor" for them) and Helmut Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new works from the most brilliant contemporary composers, such as Toshio Hosokawa, Miroslav Srnka, Alberto Posadas, Mauro Lanza, Gérard Pesson, Rebecca Saunders and Tristan Murail. The quartet's repertoire ranges from works from the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Beethoven, Schubert, the Second Viennese School (Schönberg, Berg and Webern), as well as Janácek, Debussy, Ravel and Bartók. His extensive discography has been regularly praised and awarded by the international music press: “Diapason d'Or” by the French magazine Diapason (five awards including two “Best of the Year”), Classical (“Best of the Year”), Télérama, Gramophone (“Editor's Choice”), The Strad, and many more. The Quatuor Diotima recorded exclusively for the Naïve label for ten years; in 2016 he launched, for the same label, the "Diotima" collection, dedicated to the works of the greatest composers of our times. Since 2008 the Quatuor Diotima has had a privileged relationship
with the Région Centre-Val de Loire, which hosts him in residence: this collaboration has led to the creation of an important laboratory for artistic and pedagogical projects. The Quatuor Diotima has devised a concert series in Orléans that unites the new generation of quartets with established ensembles. The Quatuor Diotima appears regularly in the most prestigious halls and concert seasons in the world. In the 2018/2019 season he will be the guest of renowned chamber music festivals (Schubertiade of Schwarzenberg, Opéra de Montpellier, Printemps des Arts of Monte Carlo, Pierre Boulez Saal of Berlin) and of contemporary music (Music of Strasbourg, Présences of Paris, Ultraschall of Berlin). In the autumn of 2018 the quartet began a three-year residency at Radio France in Paris.
