Facts
Born in Münster, Germany
Member since 01.02.1989
Biography
Walter Küssner would really rather have learned the cello, but his brother already played it. Besides that, he had the opportunity of borrowing a viola from his school, and so he decided for the deeper instrument. He received his professional musical training from Jürgen Kussmaul in Düsseldorf, Kim Kashkashian in New York and Michael Tree in St. Louis. In 1987 he became a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. Two years later he moved to the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom he also takes part in numerous chamber-music formations, for example the Philharmonic String Octet and the Athenaeum Quartet. As visiting professor of viola, Walter Küssner, an enthusiastic chess and skat player, teaches at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik. He is also the orchestra’s historical archivist.
Ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Philharmonic Stradivari Soloists Berlin
Ensemble Berlin
Berliner Barock Solisten
Philharmonisches Capriccio Berlin
Berlin Philharmonic Virtuosi
The Berliner Philharmoniker have unique memories of Japan. Principal flautist Emmanuel Pahud, violist Walter Küssner and violinist Alessandro Cappone reminisce about the tours in Japan.