Sergej Tchirkov was born in St.Petersburg in 1980 and studied the accordion at the Rimsky-Korsakov Special Secondary Music Lyceum. He graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 2003, class of Professor Alexander Dmitryev. In 2003-2005 he took a postgraduate course in music performance, pedagogy and musicology.

Sergej has attended seminars and lectures on composition conducted by Sergej Slonimsky, Gerard McBurney, Terry Riley, Paul-Hainz Dittrich and Ernst-Helmuth Flammer.

He has been awarded prizes at many international competitions in Italy, UK, Finland and Russia and received a scholarship from the European Centre of Arts Hellerau in 2004-2005.

His interest for new music has led him to collaborations with composers such as Pierluigi Billone, Hanna Eimermacher, José María Sánchez Verdú, Esaias Järnegard, Ivan Fedele, Tamara Friebel, Klaus Lang, John Palmer, Elena Rykova, Dieter Schnebel, Martin Schlumpf, Gérard Zinsstag, Ida Lunden, Boris Filanowski, Sergej Newski, Dmitri Kourliandski, Thomas Kessler, Alfred Zimmerlin and more.

Tchirkov has premiered over 250 works featuring the accordion. He has performed at various new music festivals including Archipel Genève, Rümlingen Festival, Dresden Days of Contemporary Music, GogolFest Kyiv, Moscow Forum, Diaghilev Festival, Wien Modern, MärzMusik and Klangspuren Schwaz to name a few. In 2002 he was the guest performer at EXPO 2002 (Switzerland) and in 2014 he was Main Artist Guest at PASImusic Festival in Finland.

Sergej has played both as a soloist and a member of an orchestra, including with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, musicAeterna ensemble, State Academic 'Svetlanov' Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Jurowski, Susanna Mälkki, Valery Gergiev, Timothy Redmond.

A regular guest musician of Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble United Berlin, Proton Ensemble Bern and Batida Ensemble Genève Sergej Tchirkov has also performed with Ensemble Interface Frankfurt, Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, ensemble Garage Köln, AJO ensemble Bodø, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, CNMRG - computer and new music research group, Neue Dresdner Kammermusik, KNM - Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, in trio with Peter Veale and Seth Josel, in duo with Natalia Pschenitchnikova and has been involved in many new media art projects includind video, electroacoustic. digital and theatre collaborations, some of which were initiated and/or curated by Tchirkov. He has been a member of eNsemble (St. Petersburg) and Studio for New Music Ensemble in Moscow.

Tchirkov has been a guest lecturer at the Zürich University of Arts, Norwegian Academy of Music Oslo, Gothenburg University, University of Arts in Graz, EMS Stockholm, Conservatory of Geneva, Kuopio Conservatory, Perm State Pedagogical University, and the Kazakh National University of Arts Astana. He has been an adjudicator at several composition and new music competitions and has taken part in many conferences on various aspects of music performance and musicology.

In 1999 - 2001 Sergej Tchirkov coordinated AWW East European News for Accordion. In 2009 - 2010 he worked as deputy director of the State Russian Concert Orchestra, St.Petersburg

In 2011 - 2014 he has taught at the International New Music Academy organised by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble in the town of Tchaikovsky.

Since 2013 Sergej Tchirkov has worked as a lecturer of Contemporary Music Department and researcher at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, as well as a deputy artistic director of the Studio for New Music Ensemble.

He currently works as a PhD research fellow in artistic research at the University of Bergen, Faculty of Art, Music and Design, the Grieg Academy.