composer

Franz Bauer is a musician who likes to embark on extended journeys in very different musical areas. From drummer to classical orchestra musician and soloist, in and in addition to his classical training, he continues to improvise more and more. This is especially the case on his main instruments, the vibraphone and the marimba, which have become his strongest means of expression.
Franz Bauer was educated at two schools (Munich College of Music, classical, and the Berlin University of the Arts, jazz). Like the projects he did while at school, he continues to cross over to new areas by regularly taking part in the most diverse projects and also inaugurating them.
He plays in a variety of groups, from percussion and contemporary music ensembles in Munich, Berlin and Rostock that aim to premiere new works in contemporary music to the improvising marimba-vibraphone duo which, coming from jazz, is strongly influenced by African rhythms. From the jazz quintet [Franz Bauer Quintet: “Plüschtier,” JazzHausMusik 1997, a group whose tours were in part supported by the Goethe Institute, to bands like Batoru [3 CDs /Nabel Records] which take him to international festivals.
In addition to concerts such as an improvised solo performance at the Berlin Academy of the Arts, the musical co-direction of a Neuköllner Opera production, diverse concerts at clubs in and near Berlin and performing in concerts of the marimba quartet Xylon (WDR), he worked on his current project, his solo CD “Bouché,” which was released in March 2006 by JazzHausMusik in Cologne. He played all the instruments himself. Apart from “Money” (Pink Floyd) and “O sole mio” (Neapolitan folk music), he composed all the pieces himself.
Jazz artists, with whom he regularly plays, influence him and he continues to write his own pieces and, for example, arrange jazz standards in unusual ways. In addition to his concerts in jazz, on classical terrain and in new music, he is increasingly trying out his musical thoughts on instruments that have hitherto been unfamiliar to him.


Photo: Marco Oelsner

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