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Quartets by Mozart, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Haydn will highlight two performances by Kuss Quartet this weekend at Southern Oregon University. A Berlin-based group, Kuss Quartet features violinists Jana Kuss and Oliver Wille, violist William Coleman and cellist Mikayel Hakhnazaryan. The quartet first came to prominence in 2002 with first prizes from the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council) and the ninth annual Premio Paolo Borciani — an international string-quartet competition held in Reggio Emilia, Italy. A Borlotti-Buitoni Trust award for young concert artists followed in 2003, firmly establishing Kuss Quartet among the world's elite string quartets. The group's schedule now features venues such as New York City's Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall and the Philharmonie in its home city of Berlin. Other engagements include festivals in Scotland, Germany and Austria. Kuss Quartet will present shows at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, and 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Music Recital Hall on the SOU campus. Friday's performance will feature Mozart's String Quartet No. 17 in B flat major K. 458, nicknamed "The Hunt." The show also will feature Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet and Concertino and Tchaikovsky's Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11. Saturday's concert includes Haydn's Quartet in C major, Op. 20, No. 2; Kurtag's Officium Breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánsky, Op. 28; and Beethoven's Quartet in F major, Op. 135. Members of Kuss Quartet reach beyond audiences of chamber-music aficionados. They draw in new listeners by combining oral commentaries with pieces selected for their performances and with help from Kulturradio, run by Berlin's regional public broadcasting station. In cooperation with Kulturradio, the quartet appears regularly at the Watergate nightclub in the city's Kreuzberg area, performing compositions by Ligeti and Lachenmann for enthusiastic young audiences before turning the club over to the night's disc jockey. With a fresh approach to the genre of the string quartet and its masterpieces, the quartet takes its audience on a voyage of discovery and rediscovery. Tickets to the shows in Ashland cost $27 and $32, $5 for ages 22 and younger. In addition to the concerts, the quartet will present an educational outreach program at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 19, and a master string class at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, in the SOU Music Recital Hall. Call 541-552-6154 or see www.chambermusicconcerts.org for information.