User:Maierhoefer/Franz Vorraber

Franz Vorraber is an austrian-german pianist and composer, born in Graz, Austria - August 24, 1962.

Born as a son of an organist Franz Vorraber started practising the piano at the age of 5, followed by first studies on the church organ at the age of 7. The professional studies began in 1972 at the age of 13 with the admission to the piano class for exceptional students at the "University of Music and Performing Arts" in Graz (Austria) with violin as second instrument. Later he continued his studies at the "Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts" in Germany as a student of Prof. Joachim Volkmann. Both institutions graduated him with honors and highest degrees.

Franz Vorraber performed his debut recital in Tokyo, Japan, at the age of 19. Since than he gave recitals in Europe, Japan and the USA and concerts with orchestra like the Gewandhauskammerorchester Leipzig, the Leipziger Kammerorchester, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Westdeutsche Sinfonia, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz and the Robert Schumann Philharmonie with conductors such as Dennis Russell Davies, Alun Francis, Dirk Joeres, Daniel Klajner, Hilary Griffiths, [[Marcus Bosch, Vladislav Czarnecki, Reinhard Seifried, Marcello Bufalini, Jonathan Seers and others.

One of Vorraber's greatest project was the cyclical performance and first digitally recording of Robert Schumann's complete piano works, performed an recorded during twelve evenings in different cities in Europe and Japan. The recordings are released on a series of thirteen CDs for which he was awarded with the Austrian Broadcasting's Pasticcio prize in 2006. As an effect of this Franz Vorraber was acclaimed as one of the most important interpreters of Schumann in our times.

During his carrer Franz Vorraber received many prizes, for example from the minister of Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Women's Affairs, from the piano manufacturer Bösendorfer in Vienna and from the city of Graz. He also won the "Joachim Erhard Prize" and received the Best Disk Award in Japan 2001 for the DVD AUDIO "Wiener Abend".

In addition to his activities as musician, Franz Vorraber also devotes himself to composition. Several solo compositions are already published on CD. His first piano concerto was premiered with great success at the monastery festival in Maulbronn, Germany. His wind quintet was premiered by the "Wind Quintet of Staatskapelle Berlin", a seven-piece trio at the Mendelssohnfest, the Nonet in Gewandhaus Leipzig, and his sextet at the Stelzenfestival. A great success was also the project "Sätze von Liebe" (Sentences of Love) with poems and self-compositions together with the writer Peter Härtling.

Since 1991 Franz Vorraber has been working as lecturer for piano at the Academy of Music in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Franz Vorraber currently lives in Zellingen, Germany.