Jana Kuss
She studied with Prof. Eberhard Feltz at the special music school Hanns Eisler (the “Carl-Philipp-Emanuel Bach Gymnasium”) who also became later the mentor of the quartet founded in 1991 with Oliver Wille.
Jana Kuss was awarded a scholarship by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and studied violin with Prof. Adelina Oprean in Basel, with Prof. Thomas Brandis in Berlin and together with the quartet at the New England Conservatory Boston with Prof. Paul Katz (Cleveland Quartet).
She received other important impulses by Walter Levin and György Kurtág.
The successful career of the Kuss Quartet continued to develop as the ensemble won both the German Music Council Prize and the coveted Quartet Award “Premio Paolo Borciani” in 2002. Since then, they perform on all important national and international podiums of concert halls and festivals, passing on their experience and knowledge in masterclasses.
Jana Kuss’s duo partner has been pianist Eric Schneider since season 2013/14.
She plays a violin by Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi (Milan 1756).
©Giorgia Bertazzi
Oliver Wille
With Jana Kuss, Oliver Wille is a founding members of the Kuss Quartet.
He is regularly moderating lecture concerts, creating new concert formats, and leading workshops, for example at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, he is writing program brochures and CD booklets as well.
Since October 2011, Oliver Wille teaches as a professor of chamber music at the Academy of Music in Hanover, where he supervises an international quartet class. The institute is a pioneer in the field of chamber music education through its creative and innovative projects.
He is a visiting professor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatory, England and is the director of a new quartet academy .
Previously, he worked at the University of Karlsruhe and has been teaching together with Walter Levin the Graduate Quartet Program at the Music Academy Basel. In 2013, he was substituting Prof. Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University.
Since 2013, he has been leading a quartet masterclass at the International Concert Weeks in Goslar and was the Artistic Director of the International Summer Academy Lower Saxony at the Frenswegen Monastery for 3 years.
He regularly gives courses at ProQuartet in Paris.
Oliver Wille has performed in orchestras of the Deutsche Oper, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, in the Frankfurt Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Camerata Bern and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. under conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding and Andris Nelson.
In 2011 he took over the artistic direction of the chamber music series in Hanover, from 2014–16 he curated a quartet festival “quartetaffairs” in the new hall of Frankfurt’s Holzhausenschlösschen.
Since 2016, Oliver Wille is artistic director of the Summer Music Festival Hitzacker. Since 2018, he is chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Karl Klingler Foundation. The committee of the German Music Council has also appointed him as Chairman of the Advisory Board and Jury of the German Music Competition.
William Coleman
He has performed with some of the world’s finest musicians, including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christian Tetzlaff, Yuri Bashmet, Miklos Perenyi, Kim Kashkashian, Boris Pergamenschikov, Leif Ove Andsnes, Til Felner, Antje Weithaas and Clemens Hagen, as well as extensive experience working directly with contemporary composers such as Helmut Lachenmann and György Kurtag. In 2002, William joined the Kuss Quartet.
He has been invited to give masterclasses worldwide, including in the U.S., the Kronberg Academy, the Suntory Academy in Tokyo, as well as return visits for solo concerts and masterclasses in Singapore and Australia.
The Kuss Quartet has recorded numerous CDs for Sony/BMG, ECM and Onyx. They have also been recorded worldwide for radio and television. Most recently the quartet broadcast for the BBC, live from the Frick Collection in New York.
Highlights of the coming season include return invitations to the major concert venues in Salzburg, Madrid, Florence, Stuttgart, Cologne, London, New York, Washington, Zurich and Berlin.
Since 2015 he is Professor for Viola at the Universität “Mozarteum” in Salzburg.
William Coleman plays on a Carlo Antonio Testore of 1736, once owned by the legendary violist Lionel Tertis, and plays exclusively Evah Pirazzi Gold strings.
©Molina Visuals
Mikayel Hakhnazaryan
Cellist Mikayel Hakhnazaryan is known as a versatile musician in the world of classical music – as a member of the Kuss Quartet, with which he is performing worldwide in all concert halls like the Philharmonie Berlin, Carnegie Hall New York, Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Vienna and at festivals as Rheingau Festival, Salzburg and Lucerne, to name a few.
Regular chamber music partners are Miklós Perényi, David Geringas, Leif Ove Andsnes, Paul Meyer, Sharon Kam, Mojca Erdmann and Avi Avital.
Born into a musical family, Mikayel continued his studies after graduation from the State Conservatory in Armenia with Tibor Varga and Marcio Carneiro in Sion and completed them at the Musikakademie Basel with Prof. Ivan Monighetti.
He was deeply inspired by Steven Isserlis, attending his master classes numerous times.
During his studies in Switzerland he appeared regularly as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra Tibor Varga and with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Armenia.
At that time he was a member of the Basel String Quartet and the Zurich String Trio.
Mikayel was Principal Cello at the Basque National Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Kammerorchester Basel, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Cappella Andrea Barca, among others.
Since 2014 is Principal Cello of the Munich Chamber Orchestra and is regularly guest at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and their chamber music groups (12 Cellists/Scharoun Ensemble).
Mikayel plays on a cello by Andrea Castagneri from 1735.
Jana Kuss
She studied with Prof. Eberhard Feltz at the special music school Hanns Eisler (the “Carl-Philipp-Emanuel Bach Gymnasium”) who also became later the mentor of the quartet founded in 1991 with Oliver Wille.
Jana Kuss was awarded a scholarship by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and studied violin with Prof. Adelina Oprean in Basel, with Prof. Thomas Brandis in Berlin and together with the quartet at the New England Conservatory Boston with Prof. Paul Katz (Cleveland Quartet).
She received other important impulses by Walter Levin and György Kurtág.
The successful career of the Kuss Quartet continued to develop as the ensemble won both the German Music Council Prize and the coveted Quartet Award “Premio Paolo Borciani” in 2002. Since then, they perform on all important national and international podiums of concert halls and festivals, passing on their experience and knowledge in masterclasses.
Jana Kuss’s duo partner has been pianist Eric Schneider since season 2013/14.
She plays a violin by Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi (Milan 1756).
Oliver Wille
With Jana Kuss, Oliver Wille is a founding members of the Kuss Quartet.
He is regularly moderating lecture concerts, creating new concert formats, and leading workshops, for example at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, he is writing program brochures and CD booklets as well.
Since October 2011, Oliver Wille teaches as a professor of chamber music at the Academy of Music in Hanover, where he supervises an international quartet class. The institute is a pioneer in the field of chamber music education through its creative and innovative projects.
He is a visiting professor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatory, England and is the director of a new quartet academy .
Previously, he worked at the University of Karlsruhe and has been teaching together with Walter Levin the Graduate Quartet Program at the Music Academy Basel. In 2013, he was substituting Prof. Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University.
Since 2013, he has been leading a quartet masterclass at the International Concert Weeks in Goslar and was the Artistic Director of the International Summer Academy Lower Saxony at the Frenswegen Monastery for 3 years.
He regularly gives courses at ProQuartet in Paris.
Oliver Wille has performed in orchestras of the Deutsche Oper, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, in the Frankfurt Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Camerata Bern and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. under conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding and Andris Nelson.
In 2011 he took over the artistic direction of the chamber music series in Hanover, from 2014–16 he curated a quartet festival “quartetaffairs” in the new hall of Frankfurt’s Holzhausenschlösschen.
Since 2016, Oliver Wille is artistic director of the Summer Music Festival Hitzacker. Since 2018, he is chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Karl Klingler Foundation. The committee of the German Music Council has also appointed him as Chairman of the Advisory Board and Jury of the German Music Competition.
William Coleman
He has performed with some of the world’s finest musicians, including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christian Tetzlaff, Yuri Bashmet, Miklos Perenyi, Kim Kashkashian, Boris Pergamenschikov, Leif Ove Andsnes, Til Felner, Antje Weithaas and Clemens Hagen, as well as extensive experience working directly with contemporary composers such as Helmut Lachenmann and György Kurtag. In 2002, William joined the Kuss Quartet.
He has been invited to give masterclasses worldwide, including in the U.S., the Kronberg Academy, the Suntory Academy in Tokyo, as well as return visits for solo concerts and masterclasses in Singapore and Australia.
The Kuss Quartet has recorded numerous CDs for Sony/BMG, ECM and Onyx. They have also been recorded worldwide for radio and television. Most recently the quartet broadcast for the BBC, live from the Frick Collection in New York.
Highlights of the coming season include return invitations to the major concert venues in Salzburg, Madrid, Florence, Stuttgart, Cologne, London, New York, Washington, Zurich and Berlin.
Since 2015 he is Professor for Viola at the Universität “Mozarteum” in Salzburg.
William Coleman plays on a Carlo Antonio Testore of 1736, once owned by the legendary violist Lionel Tertis, and plays exclusively Evah Pirazzi Gold strings.
Mikayel Hakhnazaryan
Regular chamber music partners are Miklós Perényi, David Geringas, Leif Ove Andsnes, Paul Meyer, Sharon Kam, Mojca Erdmann and Avi Avital.
Born into a musical family, Mikayel continued his studies after graduation from the State Conservatory in Armenia with Tibor Varga and Marcio Carneiro in Sion and completed them at the Musikakademie Basel with Prof. Ivan Monighetti.
He was deeply inspired by Steven Isserlis, attending his master classes numerous times.
During his studies in Switzerland he appeared regularly as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra Tibor Varga and with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Armenia.
At that time he was a member of the Basel String Quartet and the Zurich String Trio.
Mikayel was Principal Cello at the Basque National Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Kammerorchester Basel, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Cappella Andrea Barca, among others.
Since 2014 is Principal Cello of the Munich Chamber Orchestra and is regularly guest at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and their chamber music groups (12 Cellists/Scharoun Ensemble).
Mikayel plays on a cello by Andrea Castagneri from 1735.