Kuss Quartet
String Quartet
String Quartet
Biography
The trademark of the Kuss Quartet is their concept-based programming. With common themes running throughout their programmes, they offer unique experiences to accustomed audiences and new listeners alike. Leader Jana Kuss and Oliver Wille have been playing side by side for almost 30 years. Together with their long-standing colleagues William Coleman and Mikayel Hakhnazaryan, they seek to validate the eternal “muss es sein?” of string quartet playing with their own brand of curiosity.
In early 2019, the Kuss Quartet was the first German string quartet to receive Stradivari’s legendary “Paganini Quartet” on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. The quartet played Beethoven’s complete string quartet cycle on these instruments in June 2019, by invitation of the Suntory Hall, Tokyo. The live, recorded cycle was released in early 2020 by the British label Rubicon Classics with the support of G. Henle Verlag.
The cross-genre Beethoven programme “Force and Freedom” was developed together with director Nicola Hümpel and her music and dance theatre “Nico and The Navigators”. The programm will be brought on stage at the Schwetzinger Festspiele in May 2021 and can also be seen at the Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Kissinger Sommer and the Radialsystem Berlin, in 2024 it will be presented in Shanghai. ARTE TV produced a music film of it.
The concept album “KRISE/CRISIS” was released in January 2023 and explored the title theme from various perspectives with well-known quartet repertoire and specially commissioned works. The accompanying concert programme “KRISE/CRISIS” can be experienced in numerous concerts. The album “Death and the Maiden” (release Nov 2024) is a compelling sequel to the albums ‘Berlin.Freizeit’ from the Covid-period, and ‘Krise’ (Crisis) about the looming catastrophes of our time: “We must react to Schubert’s outcry, Ter Schiphorst’s refugee drama and Mark Andre’s fragile silence and disappearance of the world with our art. ‘Sei gutes Muts!’ Have courage!”.
At the beginning of their career, the quartet was awarded first prizes by the German Music Council and the Borciani Competition, received a Borletti-Buitoni Award and was a “Rising Star” of the European Concert Hall Organization.
“The Kuss Quartet has long ranked amongst the most interesting quartets on the international scene.”
Thomas Schacher, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 2018
Today, the Kuss Quartet inspires the next generation at numerous master classes. William Coleman (Mozarteum, Salzburg) and Oliver Wille (in Hanover and Birmingham) are also professors at European universities.
Images & videos
