(29.6.1971-). Violinist and Pianist

Chircop started violin and piano at the age of 4 with Joseph Psaila and later with Mario Bisazza and Antoine Frendo in Malta. At the age of 16, she obtained the Associate and Licentiate Diplomas of Trinity College, London, in both instruments and in 1995 was admitted Fellow of the Trinity College, London.

In 1991 she won the Bice Mizzi Vassallo music competition and was awarded a scholarship at the Conservatoire National De Region, Lyon, France, where she studied with Veronique Riou and Roger Germser and obtained her Diplome Fin d’Etude. Between 1988 and 1997 she was a full time member of the Manoel Theatre Orchestra in Malta and between 1997 and 2002, she was the principal second violinist of the National Orchestra, Malta and later the sub-leader of the same orchestra. Between 1989 and 2007 she taught violin and piano at the Johann Strauss School of Music, Valletta.

Chircop is very sought after as a chamber music player, having been the first violinist of the Vitis String Quartet and the Issa Ensemble. She has also been a member of the Musique de Chambre: Pro Arte and the Almaz quartet. She is a member of VIBE (Valletta International Baroque Ensemble) as well as a member of the Janascharco Trio made up of herself, Natasha Chircop and Marco Rivoltini. This trio has recorded CDs and premiered works by the Maltese composer Prof Joseph Vella and the English composer John Simpson. She is also a member of the Equinox Trio made up of herself, Tricia Dawn Williams and Lino Pirotta, a trio which specializes in contemporary music and has performed contemporary works by composers such as Edward Manukian and Man-Ching Donald Yu.

She has recorded for Maltese television and radio and has premiered works for French composer Jean Bouvard and various Maltese composers including Mariella Cassar, Karl Fiorini, Chris Muscat, Manuel Pirotta, Veronique Vella and Ruben Zahra.
Her performances as soloist and in chamber ensembles have taken her to Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland, Belgium, Syria and North Korea where she performed in various festivals including the Aberdeen Festival and the Victoria Arts Festival where she has also conducted violin master classes.

Chircop lectured at MCAST from 2007 to 2013, was appointed Director of the Institute of Community Services between 2013 and 2015 and since 2015 she is the Head of the Foundation College within MCAST. Her approach to music is much wider than performing and teaching. In 2014, Chircop was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Youth and Community Studies from Brunel University, UK. In her research, Chircop combines the gendered nature of identity formation of young women and the music they listen to. The research focuses on how young Maltese women make meaning out of the music they listen to in their everyday lives and how they incorporate this meaning into everyday discourses and identities. Chircop explores the consumption of global and local cultural forms of music as leisure and the incorporation or resistance of these cultural forms in identity formation processes. She also explores how social and cultural capitals are processed in the social and cultural power struggle to form cultural hierarchies and how these assume meanings in different contexts.

Chircop graduated with a BA (Hons) in English from the University of London in 2005, a BA (Hons) (2008) from the University of Malta and a MA(2007) from Brunel University, UK, both in Youth and Community Studies, a Master in Intercultural and Environmental Management of Schools (2010) from Universita Ca’ Foscari, Venice and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Vocational Education and Training from MCAST (2010).