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Kuss Quartet

The Kuss Quartet, one of Germany's most durable and best-regarded chamber ensembles, performs standard repertory but has experimented with unconventional presentations, such as cross-genre conceptual concerts and concerts in informal settings such as popular nightspots. The quartet's classical lounge series "Kuss Plus" has achieved long-lasting success on the Berlin scene. The quartet's name refers to that of first violinist, Jana Kuss, not to the concept of the kiss. Kuss and violinist Oliver Wille formed the quartet in 1991 while students at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin; since 2008, the group has also included violist William Coleman and cellist Mikayel Hakhnazaryan. The quartet had top-notch teachers in Germany, including the Alban Berg Quartet, and it made a prestigious debut in 1993 at the palace of German president Richard von Weizsäcker. The Kuss Quartet won several major awards, including first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in Canada in 2001. The following year, they were invited by Paul Katz of the Cleveland Quartet to attend a string quartet course at the New England Conservatory in Boston. More prizes followed, including the Borletti-Buitoni Award, which carried substantial fellowship support. Since the mid-2000s decade, the Kuss Quartet has been a major presence in international chamber music series, appearing across Europe, North and South America, and Japan. The quartet has collaborated with clarinetist Paul Meyer, cellist Miklós Perényi, and singer Mojca Erdmann, among others. The group has appeared at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and New York's Carnegie Hall, among other top venues. Especially notable among the quartet's collaborators have been figures from nonmusical expressive genres. The group has appeared with actor Udo Samel in programs combining literature and music, and in 2020, it appeared with the troupe Nico and the Navigators in "Force and Freedom," a presentation of Beethoven's music involving the quartet, dancers, and multimedia images. On its own, the quartet has created a series called "Explica," in which the members discuss the music as well as play it, and has developed concert formats adapted to popular venues such as Berlin's Watergate nightclub. The Kuss Quartet has recorded for the Sony Classical and Onyx labels, releasing a recording of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Piano Quintet with pianist Olga Scheps on the latter in 2019.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography

11 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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