“Bernd Franke`s work distinguishes itself from other types of music formed by the emphasis of contrasts not only by its elegance and hedonistic character but ultimately by the way such contrasts are minutely built up and stressed through an ever-sharpening differentiation of sounds towards a timbre- determining voicing through which the polarities are not discharged as unresolved conflicts, but rather preserve a striving for balance and harmony which, however, in the end remains unattained.
His dramaturgically-tonal compositions aim at achieving a musical language directly understandable by the hearer but without degenerating into banality or neoromanticism. On the contrary, comprehensibility and differentiation (tonal as well as structural) are two strands of one intention:
to write music which is communicative but which does not drag with it the embarrassing baggage
of obligatory convention.
Musical influences for Franke have been Witold Lutoslawski and Edgar Varèse as well as Charles Ives, John Cage and Morton Feldman. Development has been both quick and slow, principally brought about by engaging with the work of other composers and more especially with painters such as Chagall, WOLS, Pousette-Dart, Erich Hauser and above all Joseph Beuys.”    (Gisela Nauck)

Biography

1959              Born in Weissenfels/Saale

1975-81 Studied at the Leipzig Conservatory “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“:  
                     Composition (Siegfried Thiele) and Conducting (Wolf-Dieter Hauschild)

1980-83        Foundation and Direction of the Group „Junge Musik“ Leipzig

1981-85        Meisterschüler (Senior Student) Academy of Arts, Berlin

since 1981    Lecturer at Leipzig University and Leipzig Conservatory (FMB)
                     
1981             Hanns Eisler Prize and Mendelssohn Scholarship

1987             Composition Prizes:  9. Internationales Kompositionsseminar der Stiftung                                  
                     Künstlerhaus Boswil (Switzerland), Kucyna International Composition Prize Boston (USA)

since 1987   several workshops at the Stiftung Künstlerhaus Boswil (Switzerland)

1988            Composer Workshop, Gaudeamus Foundation Amsterdam 
                    (collaboration with Ton de Leeuw and Chu Wen Chung) 
                    starts cycle half-way house - SOLO XFACH (for Joseph Beuys) with Solo 3fach

1989            Leonard Bernstein Fellowship, Tanglewood Music Center (USA)
                    (Study with Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, Louis Krasner and Oliver Knussen)

1993            Lecture tours/workshops in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Carrollton, Minneapolis (USA)

1994            Jury member,  “Münchener Biennale für Neues Musiktheater" 
                    at the invitation of Hans Werner Henze
                    Lecture and concert tours (Goethe-Institute) in Atlanta (USA)

1996            Lecture and concert tours in Atlanta und Jacksonville (USA)

1996-98      Artistic Director "Neue Musik in der Galerie Beck" Leipzig/Düsseldorf

1998           Foundation of Ensemble SOLO XFACH  for authentic performance of works in the growing cycle 
                   SOLO XFACH 

2000           First production with the Ensemble SOLO XFACH with Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt
            SOLO XFACH Porträtkonzert on the 15 October in the Deutscher Pavillon of the EXPO 2000 in               
           Hanover with the Ensemble SOLO XFACH

2001          starts with the new cycle CUT

2002           new publisher with C.F. Peters Frankfurt-New York-London exclusively    
                   member of the Akademie der Künste Dresden 

2003           Composer of the Year at the Kaustinen Festival in Finland

2004           starts with the new cycle LINES