As a musician
Solo performance and chamber music have shaped Boris Kuschnir’s musical life. In 1970 he founded the Moscow String Quartet and worked with Dmitri Shostakovich on his late quartets. After moving to Austria, he formed new ensembles and lasting musical partnerships.
String quartet
Mikhail Kopelman, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Sulyga and Mikhail Milman — four musicians with shared roots at the Moscow Conservatory.
Founded in 2002
Explore the ensemble → IIPiano trio
Since its Lockenhaus debut: chamber music from piano trios to quintets, with recordings of the Schumann trios on Naxos.
Founded in 1993
Explore the ensemble → IIIPiano trio
With Claus-Christian Schuster and Martin Hornstein — international concerts and the complete Mozart piano trios.
1984–1993
Explore the ensemble → IVString quartet
Boris Kuschnir’s first quartet — with Raimundas Katilius, Igor Sulyga and cellists Ivan Monighetti and Alexander Osokin.
1970–1979
Explore the ensemble →As a soloist and chamber musician, Kuschnir has performed at the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Berlin Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. His festival appearances include Salzburg, Verbier, Lockenhaus and the Wiener Festwochen.
His chamber music partners include Elisabeth Leonskaja, Evgeny Kissin, András Schiff, Julian Rachlin, Nikolaj Znaider, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky and Sol Gabetta, in combinations ranging from duos to larger ensembles.
For the Mozart anniversary in 1991, EMI released the Vienna Schubert Trio’s complete recording of the piano trios. The Vienna Brahms Trio’s complete Schumann piano trios were released by Naxos in two volumes in 1999 and 2000. Recordings by the Kopelman Quartet are available on Nimbus Records and Wigmore Hall Live.
In 2025 Kuschnir joined María Dueñas in Wieniawski’s Étude-Caprice op. 18 No. 2 on her Deutsche Grammophon album Paganini: 24 Caprices.