Franui in concert

Franui Musicbanda © Julia Stix
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Wettersteinstraße 30, 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Deutschland
Dance! (Franz)
Franui Musicbanda

The East Tyrolean music band Franui is known for its unconventional approach to classical music, to which it adds elements of folk music, irony and cool tempi. During their program Dance! (Franz) the ten musicians of Franui play dance music from high alpine areas and the lowlands, between Schubert, Bartók and folklore, through musical epochs and styles.
Let the musicians speak for themselves: The funeral march and the polka are two sides of the same coin, the cemetery and the dance floor are close together. You can play at a funeral - and have fun on the dance floor! Moreover, "If you play a funeral march four times as fast, it'll be a polka."

Franui Musicbanda © Julia Stix
Franui Musicbanda © Julia Stix

Franui Musicbanda“Franui” is the name of a mountain pasture in Innervillgraten/Austria, a small East Tyrolean village located 1,402 meters above sea level where most of the Franui musicians grew up. The word is of Rhaeto-Romanic origin and refers to the proximity of Innervillgraten to the Ladin-speaking region in the Dolomite Alps.
The Musicbanda of the same name have been playing together in nearly the same line-up since 1993 and are frequently invited to perform at major festivals and venues (e.g. Wiener Konzerthaus, Burgtheater Wien, Salzburg Festival, Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Bregenzer Festspiele, Ruhrtriennale, Radialsystem V Berlin, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Philharmonie Köln, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Theater Basel, Philharmonie and Grand Théatre Luxembourg, Les Nuits de Fourvière Lyon, Holland Festival).
The song-play “Steine und Herzen” (Ruhrtriennale 2005) marked the beginning of an intense collaboration between Franui and the actor and director Sven-Eric Bechtolf, with Bechtolf regularly performing with the Musicbanda as a reciter. In addition to their concerts Franui have also realized a number of music theater productions over the years, e.g. “Fool of Love,” a compilation of Shakespeare sonnets realized in collaboration with the singer and pianist Karsten Riedel and the puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan (Burgtheater Wien), “Meine Bienen. Eine Schneise” (Salzburg Festival 2012, libretto: Händl Klaus). On the occasion of their twentieth anniversary the ensemble hosted a sensational concert in the original “Franui” mountain pasture, at 2,300 meters above sea level, and some 1,500 visitors embarked on a three-hour hike to reach the location. Since May 2015 Franui are part of the annual festival “Gemischter Satz” hosted by Wiener Konzerthaus, which presents new forms of interaction between music, art, literature and wine.
Franui’s albums are released with the label col legno and have won several prizes (German Record Critics’ Award, Ö1 Pasticcio Award, Toblacher Komponierhäuschen).