The Kuss Quartet was founded in 1991 at the Hanns-Eisler Academy in Berlin and has played in its current formation since October 2001. The Kuss Quartet's teachers include the Alban Berg Quartet, Walter Levin of the LaSalle Quartet as well as Martha and Paul Katz – formerly of the Cleveland Quartet – who invited the young musicians to study with them at Boston's New England Conservatory. In 2002, in addition to winning the prize of the Deutsche Musikrat, it also received First Prize in the renowned Borciani Competition. One year later, it was selected by the European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) for the
Rising Stars programme and debut in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Musée du Louvre Paris, Wigmore Hall London, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. These debuts were followed by invitations which took the quartet on tours of the USA, Japan, Australia and South Africa. The Quartet chose a very special juxtaposition of works for its first CD in 2003: Adorno's
Zwei Stücke and Schönberg's String Quartet, Op. 7. In August 2005, it released a recording with early and late works by Mozart and Mendelssohn on Oehms Classics. In addition to concerts, the Kuss Quartet makes a point of engaging audiences – both young and old – in discussion. Visits to schools, concerts for children as well as discussion concerts are a regular part of its work. A broad cooperation with the rbb (a cultural radio program) enables the Quartet to present evening programmes with guests from other arts in the Berlin club
Café Moskau under the title
Kuss plus.
Last updated: February 2006
Photograph taken by Monika Rittershaus