High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rudolf Kolisch (July 20, 1896 August 1, 1978) was a Viennese violinist and leader of string quartets. He played a right-handed violin left-handed an extremely rare occurrence in classical music settings. Kolisch was born in Klamm, Lower Austria and raised in Vienna. His father (also named Rudolf Kolisch) was a prominent physician and a Dozent at the University. Following service in World War I, Kolisch attended both the University and the Musikakademie, where he studied violin with Ottokar ev ik, composition with Franz Schreker and conducting with Franz Schalk, intending at first to make a career as a conductor. In 1919 he began studying composition with Arnold Schoenberg, his later brother-in-law (1924), who soon put Kolisch to work in the "Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna" (Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen in Wien).