Pianist Martin Tchiba was born in 1982 in Budapest and has been living in Germany since 1985. In his early years his artistic prowess quickly attracted attention. His ability to combine "complete dedication, passion and keen intelligence" (Rhein Neckar Zeitung, Heidelberg) on a high artistic level in his playing prepared the way towards a successful international concert career.
His concert appearances include performances at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, at the Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall, in the Budapest Autumn Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Braunschweig Classix Festival and the European Ruhr Classic Festival, the Unicum Festival in Ljubljana (as soloist with the Slovenian National Philharmonic), the Festival Enescu in Romania, the Budapest Music Weeks, the "Ensemblia" Festival Mönchengladbach, at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, at the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle Bielefeld, at Flagey Brussels, in Berlin, Basel, Den Haag and Salzburg. He had a solo performance in Berlin in the presence of the Presidents of Germany and Austria. In 2017, his social media piano project "WIReless" at Tonhalle Düsseldorf attracted attention. Tchiba has made numerous live and studio recordings and broadcasts for radio and television, as with the WDR Cologne, the SWR, the SR, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Deutschlandradio Kultur, the Hungarian and Dutch broadcasting services (AVRO, VPRO, Concertzender, TV Nederland 1 and 3) and others. The Dutch Television made recordings at the "Bimhuis" in the new Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. The "RBB Kulturradio" (Berlin) broadcast a one-hour long portrait of the pianist, "SR 2 KulturRadio" aired a two-and-a-half-hour-long portrait.
His CDs, released for the Naxos, Telos, Hungaroton and Challenge Classics labels, received many positive reviews in international music magazines (BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, 5 de Diapason, 4 étoiles du Monde de la Musique, Fono Forum, Rondo, ensemble, Musik & Theater Zürich, Gramofon, Ritmo, Het Parool Amsterdam, Die Zeit, neue musikzeitung, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, American Record Guide and others). Currently (2017/18), two new recording projects of Martin Tchiba are in preparation: The complete piano solo music by Johannes Kreidler (SWR Baden-Baden) and a CD with "piano songs" by Moritz Eggert (Bayerischer Rundfunk / Spektral, with soprano Irene Kurka).
In his carefully planned repertoire containing works of all ages, the music of the 20th and 21st centuries plays an important role. He performs it also in combination with works from earlier times. This opens a new perspective: the familiar alongside the new. Tchiba has given the first performances of several new compositions (works by Gerhard Stäbler, Michael Denhoff, Moritz Eggert, Johannes Kreidler, Kunsu Shim, György Kurtág, László Sáry, Sarah Nemtsov, Alwynne Pritchard and others).
Following several years of piano studies with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hannover and outstanding successes in competitions for young musicians, Martin Tchiba studied at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken with Thomas Duis and at the Musikakademie in Basel with Jean-Jacques Dünki. He has participated as a soloist in master classes and workshops with Lazar Berman, Marie-Françoise Bucquet, Jan Marisse Huizing, György Kurtág and Jan Wijn, among others. He regularly consults the composers when studying their works. Tchiba was given various scholarships and awards, including scholarships from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Cultural Award (Kulturförderpreis) of the Federal State Capital Saarbrücken as well as promotions from the Kunststiftung NRW. The International Holland Music Sessions have promoted him as "International Young Top Talent".
He was the artistic leader of a project launched by "Bipolar - German-Hungarian Culture Projects" and the German National Cultural Foundation on the subject of innovative music instruction.
Additional studies in composition with Michael Denhoff in Bonn, workshops with Earle Brown and Helmut Lachenmann. His compositions have been performed and broadcasted by renowned ensembles, for instance at the International Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam and at the "aDevantgarde" Festival in Munich. www.tchiba.com