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Biography
The Story of the Stettholz-Musikanten
The story of the Schwarzwaelder Stettholz-Musikanten began 15 years ago in 1985 in a little town called
Stettholz, a idyllically situated in the middle of the beautiful Black Forest not far from the historical town of Lö¶ffingen in the district of Freiburg/Baden Württenberg. In that year, seven very young musicians began to set up a band. A name was quickly found as one of the band members came from the already mentioned town of Stettholz It wasnt long before the seven musicians began playing at small occasions such as eve-of-wedding parties, the weddings themselves and village festivals. The young musicians played with such refreshing enthusiasm that they never failed to electrify the public.
It was
long either before the band became known beyond the boundaries of the town. The number of appearances increased steadily from year to year. Engagements in Switzerland, Austria and France followed. They got through 70, 80 performances a year, and that as amateurs (!).
Winning the Young Talent Contest in 1989, by one of the largest German radio companies, Suedwestfunk 4, meant the
breakthrough for the still young musicians. Numerous TV appearances and many further radio interviews followed.
Their first USA tour in 1994 was
proof that American promoters were not long in sitting up and taking notice of the band. They traveled to New Ulm, Minnesota to be Germany musical representatives at the famous Heritage Festival.
Success was long in coming. The seven musicians meet with such rapturous applause that their cassettes and CDs were sold out at
the end of the first day. A few days later they moved on to
Milwaukee, Illinois to the large German Festival. There, too, they met with tremendous success. On the heels of the festival came the invitation to take part the following year 1995, an invitation which was gladly taken up. Since then there have been numerous USA tours.
What characterizes the
Schwarzwälder Stettholz-Musikanten is their wild, racy and refreshing style of playing genuine folk music. They attach particular importance to including special numbers to get the public involved. These entail total movement on stage, with none of the musicians standing still in his or her place.
There has scarcely been an event at which these likeable dashing guys from the Black Forest haven
succeeded in getting the public off their seats to cheer, yodel and sing along. And even long after the performances have ended, the musicians are still deep in conversation with their enthusiastic fans.
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