Mart Kuusma
b. November 10, 1992 RakvereMember of the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians
Mart Kuusma began to study viola in 2009 at Tallinn Music High School under the guidance of Toomas Nestor. In 2013, he continued his viola studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Toomas Nestor. Since October 2016, he studies at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold (Germany) in the viola class of Prof. Diemut Poppen.
Mart Kuusma has attended masterclasses of Máté Szűcs, Veit Hertenstein, Peijun Xu, Christian Euler, Nils Mönkemeyer, Hermann Menninghaus, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Xandi van Dijk, Ula Ulijona Zebriunaite, Alexander and Mikhail Zemtsov. He has also successfully participated in several chamber music competitions including the 2nd prize with a piano trio in chamber music competition “Pavasario Sonata” in Lithuania (2012).
Mart Kuusma has participated in the work of several orchestras, such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Detmolder Kammerorchester (Germany), Estonian National Opera Symphony Orchestra, Virumaa Chamber Orchestra, and Järvi Academy Sinfonietta. In seasons 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 he was a laureate of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Academy. He has also led the chamber music course “In corpore” for young musicians in Rakvere.
As a chamber musician, Mart Kuusma has appeared in several ensembles. Since 2021, he belongs to the string quartet M4GNET with promising young musicians Robert Traksmann (I violin), Katariina Maria Kits (II violin), and Marcel Johannes Kits (cello). The ensemble was formed in 2021 within the new residency programme of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. In 2021, the string quartet won the 1st prize at the International Chamber Music Competition KraCamera in Kraków, Poland.