Rainer Kussmaul (June 3, 1946 - March 27, 2017) was a German violinist and conductor. Kussmaul was born in Mannheim, Germany. He's the brother of Jürgen Kussmaul and Wolfgang Kussmaul. Rainer Kussmaul received his first violin lessons from his father, Willy Kussmaul, who was a solo violinist in the orchestra of the Nationaltheater Mannheim. After studies in Mannheim and with Ricardo Odnoposoff at the State Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart, Rainer Kussmaul soon won prizes in international competitions, both as a soloist and from 1968 to 1997 with his Stuttgarter Klaviertrio. His concert activity as a soloist and chamber musician made him travel around the world. Kussmaul was an internationally sought-after teacher. From 1977 he taught as a professor at the Freiburg University of Music, where he pointed out to his students the sound possibilities of the baroque violins for the corresponding repertoire. He was head of the Carl Flesch Academy in Baden-Baden and taught in the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan. From 1993 to 1997 he was the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1995, he founded the Berlin baroque soloists with his fellow Philharmonic musicians, who performed under his direction until 2010. Students of Kussmaul founded the Freiburger Barockorchester , which is now an international ensemble. Rainer Kussmaul received important record prizes, including the Echo Klassik Prize and the Grammy in 2005. He played a violin from 1724, made by Antonio Stradivari. His older brother, Jürgen Kussmaul, was professor for viola at the Dusseldorf Musikhochschule and his younger brother Wolfgang Kussmaul is concertmaster at the Stuttgart chamber orchestra. Rainer Kussmaul died in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany in 2017. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.