Family music - Tradition in conflict

For many centuries making music has been part any culture. An act of joy, social interaction but also of expression and vitalization. Ever since there has been music, the desire to make music together has existed too, to use this means of expression in small or large groups and ensembles.

Making music and mostly singing together as a family has been common until some decades ago. Nowadays this has become less and less so. Even though we still sing songs to children, such as lullabies, for most young people the need for making music has been replaced by passive music consumption, driven by the rise of the entertainment industry. New needs and habits were formed.

Learning to play a music instrument becomes more and more conflicted: On one side the longsome process of learning and creating by yourself that requires patience and self-disciplinee. The omnipresent attention catching entertainment on the other. The fast moving age we live in hardly allows us to create something and let it grow over a longer period of time or to learn how to deal with failure and slowly unfolding progresses.

It is easier to escape into a world of superficial fantasies without hard decisions and unpleasant consequences. At best satisfying selfish needs can be achieved.

Fascination family music

To us as professional musicians it was a concern to not only pass this beautiful art to our students, but also to our own children. With much joy we were allowed to see our children Peter and Barbara grow up with and experience music and develop.

It is a fact that the family life is severely burdened in our society. We realized that making music together was a meeting point and we experienced a lot of joy together, pulling the family closer together and establishing new bonds.

From making music together the idea to perform on stage arose. In the beginning mostly for weddings and birthday parties of family members and friends, but today we get booked for public concerts or manage concerts ourselves. In 2005, for example, we were on tour in Columbia.

To not affect the children’s education too much, we often had to discuss whether we wanted to play more concerts or not. The children’s opinion always was an important factor. Now the children have become adults and are involved in education and profession.

Therefore Furioso Romantica is currently only a trio, with Markus, Theres and Barbara.