The Kuss Quartet with Jana Kuss (violin), Oliver Wille (violin), William Coleman (viola) and Mikayel Hakhnazaryan (cello) is a Berlin-based

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

. It was founded in 1991 at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" by the two violinists of the ensemble and has been playing in its current formation since 2008.

History

Among the teachers of the Kuss Quartet were

Walter Levin Walter Levin (December 6, 1924 – August 4, 2017) was the founder, first violinist, and guiding spirit of the LaSalle Quartet (active 1947–1987), which was known for its championing of contemporary composers, for its recordings of the Second V ...

Christoph Poppen Christoph Poppen (born 9 March 1956) is a German conductor, violinist and academic teacher. Career Poppen was born in Münster. As a violinist, he was awarded first prize in the Kocian Violin Competition age 14. He studied the violin with Kur ...

Eberhard Feltz Eberhard Feltz (born 27 June 1937) is a German classical violinist and chamber music pedagogue.Udo Badelt: A portrait of Eberhard Feltz.Eberhard Feltz. In: www.fmb-hochschulwettbewerb.de. Feltz became internationally known especially as a mentor ...

and the

Alban Berg Quartet The Alban Berg Quartett was a string quartet founded in Vienna, Austria in 1970, named after Alban Berg. Members Beginnings The Berg Quartet was founded in 1970 by four young professors of the Vienna Academy of Music, and made its debut in ...

. In the season 2001/02, the quartet accepted an invitation from

Paul Katz Paul Katz is an American cellist, who was a member of the Cleveland Quartet from 1969 to 1995.Katherine Millett "Cellist Paul Katz Puts His Students on Equal Footing" ''Strings'' August/Sept, 2007 He and his wife, pianist Pei-Shan Lee, reside in B ...

of the Cleveland Quartet to study at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There, they completed a Graduate Diploma Program for string quartet. The ensemble made its debut in 1993 at the Palace Concert of the German President

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobilit ...

Awards

The Quartet won international prizes at the Bubenreuth Competition (1997), the Karl-Klingler Competition (Berlin, 1998) and the International String Quartet Competition in Banff (Canada, 2001). In June 2002, the Kuss Quartet was awarded 1st prize at the International String Quartet Competition

Premio Paolo Borciani The International String Quartet Competition "Premio Paolo Borciani" was created in 1987 in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and is dedicated to their famous fellow citizen, founder and first violin of thQuartetto Italiano The promoter and organiser iFondazion ...

in Reggio Emilia/Italy. At the same time as the Borciani competition, the ECHO (European Concert Halls Organisation) decided to award the Kuss Quartet the title of German Artist of the Rising Stars Programme. As a result, the Quartet made its debut in the 2003/04 season at the

Royal Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb Architectural acoustics, acoustics place it among the ...

in Amsterdam, the Vienna Konzerthaus,

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

, the Athens Concert Hall and the Birmingham Symphony Hall. The quartet was also supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. Since then, it has been one of the established ensembles of its generation, giving concerts in Europe, the US, South America and Japan. The Kuss Quartet has played with chamber music partners such as the singer

Mojca Erdmann Mojca Erdmann (born 29 December 1975) is a German soprano who is particularly associated with the Mozart operas. She created the role of Ariadne in Rihm's ''Dionysos'' at the Salzburg Festival. Career Born in Hamburg, Erdmann sang in the chi ...

, the cellist

Miklós Perényi Miklós Perényi (born 5 January 1948) is a Hungarian cellist. He was born in Budapest into a musical family and studied at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Ede Banda and Enrico Mainardi. He continued his studies at the Accademi ...

, the clarinettists

Sharon Kam Sharon Kam ( he, שרון קם; born August 11, 1971) is an Israeli–German clarinetist. She won the ARD International Music Competition in 1992. Biography After completing her music studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, wher ...

and Paul Meyer. It has developed special concert formats such as the classical music lounge at the Watergate Club, the discussion concerts "Explica" and programmes combining literature and music with the actor Udo Samel.

Recordings

* Oehms Classics: Mendelssohn/Mozart Streichquartette (2006) * Sony Classical: Bridges – Renaissance und Moderne (2007) * Sony Classical: Haydn: Streichquartette * Onyx: Schubert/Berg (2011) * Onyx: Thème russe (2012) * Onyx: Schubert String Quintet C Major (2013) * Onyx: Brahms/Schönberg (with Mojca Erdmann, 2016)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuss Quartet German string quartets Musical groups from Berlin 1991 establishments in Germany Musical groups established in 1991