Oliver Wille

International Chair in Chamber Music

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Oliver Wille was born in Berlin and studied at several universities in Germany (Berlin and Cologne) and USA (Indiana University and New England Conservatory). As a co-founder of the international acclaimed Kuss-Quartet he started a very active chamber music life at fairly young age. Among his teachers were Eberhard Feltz, Christoph Poppen, Mauricio Fuks, Walter Levin, members of Cleveland and Alban Berg Quartet, as well as György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados.

Oliver writes programme notes and CD booklets and holds lecture recitals such as the 'Explica' series of the Kuss Quartet in Hamburg, Hannover and Heidelberg.

Since 2012 he serves as the vice president and artistic advisor of the Chamber Music Society Hannover, and works as artistic director at a new string quartet festival in Frankfurt.

After winning the German Music Competition and the prestigious 'Premio Borciani' in 2002, as well as being chosen from the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) in 2003, the ensemble performs on main concert stages worldwide, such as London Wigmore Hall, New York Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam or Berlin Philharmonie and they appear regularly at international festivals such as Edinburgh, Rheingau or Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. Apart from traditional concert forms they get special attention for their series 'KussPlus' in Berlins night clubs and their collaboration with the actor Udo Samel.

The Kuss Quartet recorded numerous CDs for Sony and Onyx Classics. Oliver has played in several orchestra projects with the Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin under Christian Thielemann, Sinfonieorchester des Hessischen Rundfunks Frankfurt, Camerata Bern or Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, Kent Nagano, Daniel Harding and Andris Nelsons.

Teaching