String quartet
Kopelman Quartet
Founded in 2002
Mikhail Kopelman, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Sulyga and Mikhail Milman — four musicians with shared roots at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 2002 Mikhail Kopelman, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Sulyga and Mikhail Milman founded the Kopelman Quartet. All four had studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the 1970s before pursuing their own international careers.
Kopelman was the Borodin Quartet’s first violinist for many years. Kuschnir and Sulyga had already worked together in the Moscow String Quartet, studying Shostakovich’s late quartets with the composer. Milman brought his experience as principal cellist of the Moscow Virtuosi and as a chamber music partner of the Borodin Quartet.
The ensemble has appeared at the Vienna Musikverein, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Edinburgh International Festival. Its chamber music partners include Elisabeth Leonskaja, Mischa Maisky and Julian Rachlin.
Its recordings on Nimbus Records and Wigmore Hall Live include works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Myaskovsky, Tchaikovsky and Schubert.
Members
- First violin Mikhail Kopelman
- Second violin Boris Kuschnir
- Viola Igor Sulyga
- Cello Mikhail Milman
Recordings
- Shostakovich – Quartets Nos. 1 and 8; Myaskovsky – Quartet No. 13 Cover & listening links
- Shostakovich – Quartets Nos. 3 and 7; Prokofiev – Quartet No. 2 Cover & listening links
- Tchaikovsky – String Quartet Nr. 3 in E-flat minor; Schubert – Death and the Maiden Cover & listening links
