Kuss Quartet

Jana Kuss, violin
Oliver Wille, violin
William Coleman, viola
Mikayel Hakhnazaryan, violoncello

Chamber music is elevated to great, existential art by the Kuss Quartet. Radio Bremen Zwei, "Klassikwelt", December 2024

Everything remains different – constant change is the only certainty of our time. This is exactly where the Kuss Quartet comes in: with courage and a passion for discovery, it initiates new programs and formats, transforming contemporary themes into art. The quartet draws its strength equally from a spirit of experimentation and a devotion to the classical repertoire from Haydn to Schubert. In doing so, it captivates both traditional and innovation-loving audiences, opening ears to the unknown. The Kuss Quartet thus stands for both: innovation and tradition – and both in excellence.

In doing so, it has been setting new standards for many years, and not only through its programming: concept albums, commissioned compositions, cross-genre formats, and collaborations with artist collectives are among the hallmarks of the Kuss Quartet. The musical journey began in 1991 with the two violinists Jana Kuss and Oliver Wille. Together with William Coleman (viola) and Mikayel Hakhnazaryan (cello), the ensemble will celebrate a quarter-century of international stage presence in 2027.

At the beginning of its career, the Kuss Quartet was awarded first prizes by the Deutscher Musikrat and at the Borciani Competition, received a Borletti-Buitoni Award, and was named a 'Rising Star' by the European Concert Hall Organisation. In 2019, the ensemble became the first German string quartet to be loaned the legendary Paganini Quartet of Stradivari instruments by the Nippon Music Foundation. At the invitation of Suntory Hall Tokyo, the quartet performed Beethoven’s complete string quartet cycle on these instruments. The resulting live recording was enthusiastically acclaimed by the press: 'One of the most interesting complete recordings of the ever-incredible Beethoven string quartets, which always seem shockingly new and as if just invented when understood and played by an outstanding ensemble,' praised the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Following the successful concept albums Krise and FREIZeit, the ensemble set new standards in 2025 with Schubert’s Death and the Maiden: the visionary pairing with works by Iris ter Schiphorst and Mark Andre was honored with the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice. In 2026, the Kuss Quartet receives the prestigious International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for the world premiere recording of works by Ernst Gernot Klussmann. In the current season, the quartet is dedicating itself to a three-part album project featuring Mozart’s string quintets, dialogically mirrored by contemporary miniatures ("Postcards to Mozart") by Manfred Trojahn, Enno Poppe, Rebecca Saunders, Isabel Mundry, Sarah Nemtsov, and Matthew Shlomowitz. The first album, released in spring 2026 and recorded together with violist Muriel Razavi, has already sparked enthusiastic press acclaim: SWR Kultur praises the quartet’s "untamed energy and presence" as well as their "meticulous perfection in detail," while Pizzicato magazine commends their "unique expressiveness and stylistic confidence.

The Kuss Quartet has commissioned and premiered numerous new works. Consequently, the string quartet repertoire has grown steadily through compositions by Enno Poppe, Aribert Reimann, Manfred Trojahn, Bruno Mantovani, Iris ter Schiphorst, Johannes Fischer, Mark Andre, Francisco Coll, and Mauro Montalbetti. In 2025, the quartet premiered Sara Glojnarić’s new work Songs for the End of the World alongside soprano Sarah Maria Sun in Witten; in July 2026, this was followed by the world premiere of Johanna Maria Staud’s String Quartet No. 2, Cahier des équilibres mouvants, at the Carinthischer Sommer festival. Commissioning partners for these works have included the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, the Paris Biennale, Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

The Kuss Quartet regularly collaborates with artist collectives to transcend genre boundaries, such as in the KUSS@KOKON project featuring dancers Yui Kawaguchi and Ruben Reniers, percussionist Johannes Fischer, and slam poet Bas Böttcher. The ensemble maintains a close and ongoing partnership with the music and dance theater collective Nico and The Navigators. Their joint Beethoven project Force & Freedom was produced and broadcast as a music film by ARTE TV in 2022. This successful collaboration continued in 2025 at Radialsystem Berlin with the music theater production Quartett zum Quadrat, which interweaves Heiner Müller’s play Quartett with the late string quartets of Leoš Janáček. Regular musical partners also include artists such as Miklós Perényi, Dénes Várjon, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Maurice Steger, and Alexander Lonquich.

Today, the Kuss Quartet inspires the next generation through numerous masterclasses and holds teaching positions at leading European music academies: Oliver Wille is a professor of string chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover, William Coleman serves as a professor of viola and chamber music at the Mozarteum Salzburg, Mikayel Hakhnazaryan teaches chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, and first violinist Jana Kuss is a guest lecturer at renowned institutions such as the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden and the Accademia Perosi in Biella, Italy.

Season 2026/27

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Nico and the Navigators and the Kuss Quartet question the aesthetic and political constraints and freedoms within which Beethoven’s work was created.

Schwetzingen Festival 2022
Radialsystem Berlin 2022
Shanghai 2024
ARTE film production 2021

“The Now is shown, this Now. Now; it has already ceased to be by the time it is shown; the Now that is, is different from the one that is shown …”
— G. W. F. Hegel

This Now

Taking Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 as its starting point, whose final movement Beethoven titled “The Difficult Decision” and framed through the dialectic of hesitation and encouragement — “Must it be? It must be!” — Force & Freedom opens up four magnificent compositions to its audience.

Following the final movement of the third of the Rasumovsky Quartets, Op. 59, the program continues with the “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit” (“Holy Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Deity”) from Op. 132 and the “Grosse Fuge” (“Great Fugue”), Op. 133.

The latter work in particular validates the choice of the production’s title through Beethoven’s own words: he described his approach to the firmly structured system of the fugue as “tantôt libre tantôt recherchée” — that is, both free and bound.

Interwoven between these major works, fragments of songs by the master appear with a light touch, nevertheless revealing important emotional colors: “New Love, New Life,” “Resignation,” and “The Kiss” illuminate different aspects of compulsive action and free choice, the fear of the unknown, and emotional transgression.