Prof. Rainer Küchl was born in 1950 in Waidhofen/Ybbs in Lower Austria. At the age of 11 he had his first violin lesson. From 1964 he studied with Prof. Franz Samohyl at the Vienna Music Academy for six years and at the end of 1970 he was appointed concertmaster of the Wiener Staatsopernorchester as well as the Wiener Philharmoniker. He took up this position in 1971 as well as the concertmaster position of the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle the following year. In 1973 he founded the Küchl- Quartett, which is also known as the Wiener Musikverein Quartett abroad. From 1976 the quartet had its own subscription series at the Wiener Musikverein until 2021. In 1982 Rainer Küchl was appointed professor at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, taking over the position of his teacher. Furthermore he has
been guest professor in Japan. As a soloist he performed several concerts in different countries, working with conductors e.g. Böhm, Abbado, Bernstein, Muti and
Thielemann amongst many others.

Since 1985 he leads the Wiener Ringensemble which has its focus on Viennese waltz music according to the tradition of the Wiener Philharmoniker. In 1989 Rainer Küchl was invited by Sir George Solti to perform as the first concertmaster of the World Peace Orchestra at the occasion of the 50 th anniversary of the United Nations Organization. In 1998 he was concertmaster at the opening of the Olympic Games in
Nagano under the baton of Seiji Ozawa.

After 45 years as concertmaster of the Wiener Staatsopernorchester and the Wiener Philharmoniker Rainer Küchl started his official retirement whereas he is still very
active as professor, guest concertmaster and soloist at home and abroad. Many awards have acknowledged his outstanding contribution to music, including the “Mozart Interpretation Award” in 1973 by the Mozart Society of Vienna, the “Golden Order of Merit of the Federal Province of Salzburg” in 1985, The “Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Arts” in 1988, in 1994 the ”Order of Merit of Services rendered to the Republic of Austria Grand Decoration” in 2010 “Honorary Goodwill Ambassador of Kawasaki” and “The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon of the Japanese Government”.