Boris Kuschnir was born in Kiev in 1948 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 and David Oistrach (with whom he also studied), had a lasting influence on his artistic development. He was a founder member of the Moscow String Quartet, with which he played for nine years. He has also founded the Vienna Schubert Trio and the Vienna Brahms Trio, and has made numerous recordings for labels including EMI (complete Mozart's Piano trios) and Naxos (Schumann's complete works for Piano trio) and has won numerous prizes at international violin and chamber music competitions (Paris, Belgrade, Sion, Trapani, Bratislava, Florence, Trieste, Hamburg). Since 2002 he has also been a member of the Kopelman Quartet.
Mr. Kuschnir is a Professor at the Conservatoire Vienna Private University and at the University of Music in Graz. His reputation as a teacher won international recognition with the recent outstanding success of his pupils, Julian Rachlin, Nikolaj Znaider, Lidia Baich, Dalibor Karvay and Alexandra Soumm. Boris Kuschnir appears with such illustrious partners as L. Leonskaja, B. Berezovsky, E. Bashkirova, L. O. Andsnes, I. Golan, J. Rachlin, N. Znaider, M. Vengerov, D. Sitkovetsky, R. Capucon, J. Bashmet, G. Caussé, N. Imai, L. Power, B. Pergamenschikow, N. Gutman, S. Isserlis, G. Capucon and V. Hagen (Hagen Quartet). At the same time he constantly gives masterclasses and is a jury member of various international music competitions (such as Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Nicolo Paganini Competition in Genua, Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris). He was awarded the use of the Stradivarius violin (La Rouse Boughton, 1703) by the Austrian National Bank in recognition of his services to music.
