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KOPELMAN STRING QUARTET
The four founding members of the Kopelman Quartet are graduates of the Moscow Conservatory from the period of the 1970's, the golden age of this institution whose teachers included Shostakovich, Oistrakh, Oborin, Rostropovich, Kogan and members of the Beethoven Quartet. In addition to their individual distinguished careers, they have performed together on numerous occasions for over 25 years. Having found great unanimity of musical taste and style in the rich tradition of the legendary Budapest and Beethoven Quartets of the Old Russian School, they have joined together to form the Kopelman String Quartet.
The common roots and background of the musicians enabled the Kopelman Quartet to quickly grow to maturity, and their Edinburgh Festival concert, just one year after their foundation, received extraordinary reviews, referring to “every hallmark of distinguished musicianship” and “great humanity in the finesse of their playing”.
A significant chamber ensemble, with no change in personnel since its foundation, the quartet has played at many major international venues including the Musikverein, Vienna, Dom Muziki, Moscow and appears regularly at venues such as the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Wigmore Hall, London. The Kopelman Quartet records for Nimbus Records and has also recorded for Wigmore Live.
VISION STATEMENT
Founded in 2002 by experienced chamber musicians steeped in the standards and style of the classic Russian school, the Kopelman Quartet carries forward a rich inheritance of technical excellence, lyricism, grace and musical integrity.
QUARTET MEMBERS
Mikhail Kopelman
1st violin, was born in Uzhgorod, former USSR, and began his violin training at the age of six. He went on to study with Maya Glezarova and Yuri Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1973, he won second prize in the Jacques Thibaud International Competition. He subsequently joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory and in 1975 became the concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1976, he was appointed first violin of the Borodin String Quartet and played with renowned ensemble for twenty years. As a member of the Borodin Quartet, he was awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union and was named a People's Artist of the Russian Federation. He also received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and Concertgebouw Silver Medal of Honor in 1995. Mr. Kopelman has performed in many international festivals including Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Schleswig-Holstein, Florence, Salzburg, Moscow, Zurich, Prague Spring, Ravinia Festival, Sante Fe, Caramoor, Norfolk, Bowdoin and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. In addition to his festival tours, he has also served as a jury member of several international competitions including Evian, Beijing, ARD Munich String Quartet, Indianapolis, Queen Elizabeth, Tchaikovsky, Enescu, Yankelevich and the Spivakov International Violin Competition.
After immigrating to the United States, he joined the Tokyo String Quartet as first violinist and became Professor of Chamber Music at Yale University. Presently, Mr. Kopelman is Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. For over fifteen years, he was closely associated with Sviatoslav Richter in numerous performances and recordings. He has also collaborated with Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Natalia Gutman, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alicia de Laroccha, Christoph Eshenbach, Yuri Bashmet, Victor Tretyakov, Eliso Virsaladze, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berman & Emanuel Ax.
Mr. Kopelman has recorded for EMI, Melodiya, Virgin, Teldec and Phillips labels.
Boris Kuschnir
2nd violin, was born in Kievin and studied the violin at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire with Boris Belenky and chamber music with Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet. His many encounters with Dmitri Shostakovich (working on his last quartets) and David Oistrakh, with whom he also studied, had a lasting influence on his artistic development. His career started 1969 when he was one of the three winners of the Allunions-Competitionin Leningrad where, in the final, he performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Yuri Temirkanov. He is a winner and laureate of numerous international violin and chamber music competitions (Paris, Belgrade, Sion, Trapani, Bratislava, Florence, Trieste, Gorizia, Hamburg, Vercelli).
He has been a founding member of the Moscow String Quartet, Vienna Schubert Trio, Vienna Brahms Trio and Kopelman Quartet. Boris Kuschnir made numerous recordings, notably the complete Mozart piano trios for EMI, as well as recordings for Naxos and Nimbus Records. Since 1981 he has been living in Austria. He is a Professor at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and also a distinguished Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. His reputation as a teacher won international recognition with the outstanding success of his pupils, Julian Rachlin, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Sergei Dogadin and María Dueñas.
He has taken part in numerous festivals such as Salzburg and Verbier. Boris Kuschnir appears with such illustrious partners as Evgeny Kissin, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Maxim Vengerov, Renaud Capuçon, Yuri Bashmet, Gérard Caussé, Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Mischa Maisky, Boris Pergamenschikow, Natalia Gutman and Steven Isserlis. He is a jury member of various international competitions such as Queen Elizabeth, Tchaikovsky, Joachim, Paganini, Thibaud, Stern and others.
Boris Kuschnir has been awarded with the “Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria” and the “Austrian Cross of Honor for Science of the Arts, First Class”.
Igor Sulyga
Violist, was born in Lvov, former USSR, where he
began his musical education. Later he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he received his bachelor diploma as a student of Professor Fyodor Druzhinine. Mr. Sulyga was a laureate of many international competitions, including First prize in the 1971 Belgrade International Quartet Competition, First prize in the 1972 Bratislava International Competition, organized by UNESCO. Mr. Sulyga was also a founding member of the Moscow String Quartet and worked with Dmitri Shostakovich on his late quartets. For several years he was also member of the Spivakov Quartet. As a member of Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and Moscow String Quartet, he performed throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Hall in Boston, Theatre des Champs Elysees, Royal Albert Hall,
Musikverein, and Concertgebouw. Mr. Sulyga has given master classes throughout Europe and has led an active career as pedagogue of viola and chamber music.
Mikhail Milman
Cellist, was born in Moscow and studied with Valentin Berlinsky, Natalia Gutman, and Mstislav Rostropovich. For twenty years, he was principal cellist of the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Spivakov. As a chamber musician, he has played with such distinguished artists as Vladimir Krainev, Evgeny Kissin, Mario Jao Pires, Yuri Bashmet, Ivan Monigetti and Vladimir Spivakov. He has also collaborated for many years with the Borodin String Quartet in recordings and performances throughout the world. Their recordings of the Schubert String Quintet and the Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence have been widely acclaimed, the latter winning the Gramophone Award in 1994. In 2002, he appeared with the Tokyo Quartet during their Brahms-Festival tour. As a widely known pedagogue, he regularly conducts master classes throughout Europe. Mr. Milman has recorded for BMG-RCA, Melodiya and Teldec.
ALBUM SHOWCASE
Shostakovich and Kissin Quartets
Shostakovich Quartet & Weinberg Piano Quintet
Schubert and Tchaikovsky Quartets
Shostakovich Quartet No. 2, Elegy & Polka
Kissin Quartett
Schubert and Tchaikovsky Quartets
Shostakovich Quartet & Weinberg Piano Quintet
Schubert and Tchaikovsky Quartets
Schubert Quartet No. 14 in D minor
Tchaikovsky Quartet No. 3 in E flat minor
Shostakovich Quartet & Weinberg Piano Quintet
Shostakovich Quartet & Weinberg Piano Quintet
Shostakovich Quartet & Weinberg Piano Quintet
Shostakovich Quartet No. 10
Mieczslaw Weinberg Piano Quintet
Shostakovich and Miaskovsky Quartets
Shostakovich and Miaskovsky Quartets
Shostakovich Quartet & Weinberg Piano Quintet
Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 1 & 8
Miaskovsky Quartet No. 13
Shostakovich and Prokofiev Quartets
Shostakovich and Miaskovsky Quartets
Shostakovich and Prokofiev Quartets
Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 3 & 7
Prokofiev Quartet No. 2