Northern Lights – An insight into nordic violin music
Published by the record company Solo Musica, the CD « Northern lights » of the Duo Froschhammer allows us to discover with sensitivity and virtuosity several Scandinavian composers. This very successful record brings together works for violin and piano written between the 19th and 20th centuries (Tor Aulin, Edward Grieg, Jean Sibelius) and also folk pieces transcribed by Fritz Froschhammer and the Duo Froschhammer.
The Duo Froschhammer features siblings Felix Froschhammer, violin, and Julia Froschhammer, piano. Founded in 1998, the Duo has since performed in Switzerland, Germany, ltaly, France, Malta and al the famous Atheneum in Bucharest. Together they are prize winners of the International Wolfgang Jacobi Competition for 20th cenlury chamber music and have been recipienls of scholarships from the Bavarian Music Fund.
Felix Froschhammer is first Violinist of the casalQuartett and Concertmaster of both the Ensemble Symphonique Neuchâtel and Sinfonietta de Lausanne (Switzerland), Felix is also active as a soloist and plays an important role in the Ensemble Chaarts and Tri i Dve, a Quinte! specialising in Balkan music.
Previous engagements include appearances al festivals including Salzburger Feslspiele, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Rheingau Musikfestival and Lucerne Festival, as well as al worldrenowned venues in Shanghai, Bangkok, Moscow, Singapore, Milan and Paris. Felix’s performances have been broadcast on Radio France, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Ôsterreichischer Rundfunk, Südwestdeulscher Rundfunk, Deulschlandfunk, Radio Suisse Romande Espace 2, France 2, Arte TV and Mezzo. His chamber music parlners include Gautier Capuçon, Lawrence Power, Fazil Say, Felicity Lott and Maximilian Hornung. Since 2018 he has been the Artistic Director of the Festival du Jura in Switzerland.
Born in Munich, Julia Froschhammer began studying the piano at the age of six with her father, the pianist and composer Fritz Froschhammer. A prize winner of several national competitions, she obtained her artistic diploma with Vadim Suchanov al the Richard Strauss
Conservatory, Munich, and joined the Haute école de musique de Lausanne (HEMU) in 2002, studying with Jean-François Antonioli. ln 2007, she completed her studies with the prestigious soloist’s diploma and was awarded the Paderewski Prize and the Ganz Prize.
Julia performs regularly as a chamber musician and soloist throughout Europe. Together with harpist Céline Gay des Combes she also enjoys performing as part of the Duo Harpian, a rare harp and piano duo which con be heard on Radio France Musique, Radio Espace 2, SRF and Radio Classique. Recently they have performed for the Swiss Embassy
in Washington (USA) and released a CD of French and Spanish music on the Swiss label VDE Gallo. The duo often commissions new works, and in 2016, the Swiss composer Jean Froidevaux dedicated a work to them. With her new ensemble, Pianofolie, Julia performs with three other pianists atone piano, combining music and comedy.
Alongside her concert career Julia shores her passion for music through teaching, notably as Professor of piano al the lnstitute de Ribaupierre (EML) in Lausanne.
As an accomplished artist Julia also expresses herself through painting. Her work con be found on her online art gallery, JuArt, and al regular exhibitions and concerts combining music and art.
