Violist
Ruth Killius, along with her husband
Thomas Zehetmair, is a co-founder of the
Zehetmair Quartet, an ensemble that has won awards for its recordings of Hartmann,
Schumann,
Hindemith, and
Bartók. She and
Zehetmair also perform as a duo and as a trio with cellist Rosie Biss.
Killius trained under Ulrich Koch and
Kim Kashkashian, and during the 1990s was principal violist for
Camerata Bern. Since then, she has appeared as a concerto soloist and, more frequently, as a chamber musician. She has participated in premieres of works by
Elliott Carter and
Brian Ferneyhough, and recorded the music of
Carter and of
Isang Yun with
Heinz Holliger and
Thomas Demenga. In 2011
Killius and
Zehetmair released
Manto & Madrigals, a program of duos by
Holliger,
Bohuslav Martinu,
Peter Maxwell Davies, and Johannes Nied.