Ruth Killius

Ruth Killius studied with Ulrich Koch and Kim Kashkashian. Besides playing the standard repertoire, she took part in many first performances, e.g. in Elliott Carter's Oboe Quartet with Heinz Holliger and in Brian Ferneyhough's String Trio with members of the Ensemble Contrechamps, Geneva.
From 1993 to 1996 Ruth Killius was principal viola player of the Camerata Bern.

In 1994 she founded the Zehetmair Quartet together with Thomas Zehetmair which meanwhile belongs to the most important string quartets. Their recording of Schumann's 1st and 3rd string quartets received among other awards the Gramophone award (Record of the Year). Also the quartet's latest CD with the string quartets no. 4 by Hindemith and no. 5 by Bartók is prizewinning: In November 2009 it has been awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'Année at a ceremony in Paris.
Furthermore, Ruth Killius has recorded a CD for ECM with works by Elliott Carter and Isang Yun together with Heinz Holliger and Thomas Demenga. The live recording of Mozart's Sinfonia concertante, published for the Glossa label, has equally attracted a lot of attention (Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Frans Brüggen).

Concert engagements as soloist lead Ruth Killius to renowned orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Basler Sinfonie Orchester, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa as well as to the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
As the start of the 2009/10 season, Ruth Killius has made a concert tour throughout Australia with stops in Melbourne, Perth and at the Sydney opera house. On these occasions, she successfully performed as the soloist in Mozart's Sinfonia Concercante and in Bartók's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Further engagements of the current season lead Ruth Killius e.g. to the Danish Odense (Bartók: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) and to Biel (Hindemith: "Der Schwanendreher").

She received invitations to major festivals including the "Luzerner Festwochen", the Edinburgh International Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musik-Festival and the Helsinki Festival.

With Thomas Zehetmair she performs sonata-programmes for Viola and Violin in many major music centres. Shortly, the duo will publish a recording for ECM with works by Mozart, Bartók, Martinu, and Holliger.

Ruth Killius has been professor for viola at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz from 2001 to 2003.

Any amendments or cuts need the consent of Künstlersekretariat Schoerke.