André Froelicher lived in Aarau until completion of his undergraduate education at the 'Alte Kantonschule'. His intensive studies at the Conservatoire supérieur de Musique de Genève (1979-1984) and at the University of Michigan under Ann Arbor in the USA (1984-1987) have turned him into one of those rare musical multi-talents with Master degrees in Piano Performance, composition and orchestral conducting; Diplôme de culture musicale (theory teacher's diploma) and master courses in piano and orchestral conducting.
As a guest conductor he has performed with various orchestras at home and abroad and recorded (amongst other things) a CD with the orchestral works of the Swiss composer Peter Mieg in 1991. He recorded Polish music from various centuries right up to the present day for Polish television together with the Archi da Camera chamber orchestra from Warsaw. In 2001 Froelicher conducted the world premiere of the Symphony in A major (1876) by the great romantic composer Edouard Munzinger who he rediscovered in his role as a publisher and conductor. The search for long forgotten musical pearls is one of his greatest passions.
His intensive years of study and his deepened musical experience have allowed him to find a very idiosyncratic compositional style, which is enjoyed by interpreters for its authentic, experienced and comprehensible musicality. Only serious interpreters are prepared to take on this audible challenge; lack of playing ability is ruthlessly apparent, an unmistakable sign of the implicit and generally scissile inner logic of his music. His compositional activities encompass all sorts of chamber music: pieces for piano, works for the harp, guitar, various solo wind instruments including the Alphorn, a string quartet, wind quintet and song cycles in English, French and German. His orchestral works have seen numerous performances throughout the USA, Italy and Poland. True to the instrument, his consciously traditional notation has been praised as exhibiting "a great technical knowledge, combined with a feeling for form and an enormous sense of sound."
Work list
Papillon (1979)
Instrumentation: for flute
Duration: 1' 00" Manuscript
La petite phrase de Vinteuil (1979)
Instrumentation: for violin and piano
Duration: 1' 30" Manuscript
Le petit Minotaure (1978-1980)
3 exercises
Instrumentation: for piano
Duration: 2' 00" Manuscript
Quatuor à cordes (string quartet) (1980)
Duration: 6' 00" Manuscript
2 Lieder nach Gedichten von Rainer Maria Rilke (2 lieder after poems by Rainer Maria Rilke) (1981)
Instrumentation: for female voice and piano
Duration: 4' 30" Manuscript
Rilke-Lieder (1981/1991)
Instrumentation: for soprano and strings
Texts: Rainer Maria Rilke
Duration: 6' 00" Manuscript
Sonate (1980-1982)
Instrumentation: for piano
Duration: 2' 30" Manuscript
Der Nachbar (1982)
Instrumentation: for baritone and violin
Texts: Rainer Maria Rilke
Duration: 2' 00" Manuscript
Nectarivores (1983)
Instrumentation: for clarinet solo
Duration: 4' 30" Manuscript
Continuation des Amours (1983)
3 sonnets after Pierre de Ronsard
Instrumentation: fo baritone and piano
Duration: 6' 00" Manuscript
Poèmes à Lou d'après Apollinaire (1984)
Instrumentation: for baritone and orchestra
Duration: 7' 30" Manuscript
Appendice des Amours (1984-1985)
Instrumentation: for barintone and piano
A piece based on the Septiesme Livre des Poèmes (X) by Pierre de Ronsard.
Duration: 2' 00" Manuscript
Flirt (1984-1985)
Instrumentation: for flute and piano
Duration: 7' 00" Manuscript
Ouroboros (1984)
Instrumentation: for bassoon
Duration: 6' 00" Manuscript
"Hickory, Dickory, Dock" (1985)
A Collection of Limericks
Instrumentation: for baritone and piano
Duration: 10' 30" Manuscript
Cartoons (1985)
Music for a pocket ballet
Instrumentation: for small ensemble (cl, tpt, hn, vc, pf)