Musical Lesson: DuoCA – SOUNDING

Christina Hörmann & Arnold Plankensteiner

How does a clarinet go with a guitar? Very well, according to Christina Hörmann (guitar) and Arnold Plankensteiner (clarinet)!
This combination of instruments is a rare instrumentation due to its diversity – which is exactly why the two musicians set out to find original literature for it. The charm of the meeting of two instruments, which is probably best titled “campfire versus orchestra pit”, clearly lies in the warm timbres it creates. An important composer for this unusual instrumentation is Ferdinand Rebay (1880-1953). But not only the music of this original Viennese is heard, but also old, new and genre-overlapping music.

Christina Hörmann, born in 1991, started learning guitar at the age of 6 at the local music school in Kötschach-Mauthen (Carinthia). In 2010 Christina Hörmann began studying instrumental pedagogy (IGP) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Ortrud Posedu, Adriano Del Sal and Armin Egger, majoring in guitar. With Michaela Reingruber she specialised in saxophone and completed the teaching qualification examination on this instrument as well. In addition, she completed training in elementary music pedagogy (EMP). She completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree with distinction, as well as her academic doctorate in the field of historical musicology in 2022. Her research work on the dissertation “Ferdinand Rebay (1880-1953). Biography and Chamber Music with Guitar” made an important contribution about the almost unknown composer Ferdinand Rebay. Christina Hörmann increasingly pursues her concert activities in the field of chamber music; fixed ensembles are the duo “Saitenklappe” (guitar/transverse flute), the guitar trio “Allegri” and in combination with the clarinettist Arnold Plankensteiner. From 2016 to 2022 Christina Hörmann taught at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz.

Arnold Plankensteiner studied at the Kunstuniversität Graz with Gerald Pachinger and at the Musikuniversität Wien with Johann Hindler and Christoph Zimper. He played with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and is a member of the orchestra of the Tyrolean Festival Erl and the Graz Chamber Orchestra con fuoco. In the field of New Music he is active in the Ensemble Zeitfluss and is a frequent guest with Klangforum Wien. He has also performed in many renowned orchestras (e.g. Vienna State Opera, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, recreation – Großes Orchester Graz, Graz Opera). Since 2014 he has been head of a clarinet class at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz and taught for several years as a lecturer at the Graz University of the Arts.