| After taking music lessons at his parents´ house and at the school of music Plauen, Stefan Fraas studied at the college of education Zwickau as well as the colleges of music in Weimar and Dresden.
Among his instructors were Prof. Günther Fredrich, Prof. Gerd Frischmuth and Alexander von Brück. Upon attending international music-seminars and master-courses, held by Helmut Rilling, Heinz Rögner, A. Caridis and others, he completed his studies of conducting at the college Zwickau.
He started his artistic work with an orchestra in 1988 as the number one bandmaster at the Vogtlandorchestra Reichenbach of which he became the chief-conductor in 1991.
Appointed to be music-director, Stefan Fraas took over the management of the Vogtland Philharmony aside from his artistic duties as conductor. In 1995 he became its executive-director.
His extensive concert activities took him to Israel, China, North Cyprus, The United States and numerous European countries. Stefan Fraas conducted performances that attracted considerable attention at music-festivals in Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, the Tschech Republic, Lithuania and Denmark (Ars et musica, Santander Music-Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music-Festival, Festival Mid Europe, Euroclassik, and others).
Within the last few years, a number of CD-recordings as well as radio- and TV-productions were done; for examble the Concertos for Organ by Rheinberger featuring Hans Otto, Bach´s Christmas Oratorio with the Poznaer Boy´s Choir, and many more.
Stefan Fraas was functioning as guest conductor for more than 30 different orchestras in and outside of Germany. He is receiving invitations to do so on a regular basis: Stettiner Philharmony-Poland; Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra; Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra-Israel; Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra-China; City of London Orchestra; Dohnanyi Orchestra Budapest-Hungary; Orchestra of Bursa-Turkye; Orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk; Thuringia Symphony Rudolstadt/Saalfeld; Bergische Symphony Remscheid/Solimgen; Elblandphilharmony Riesa; Mid-Saxon Philharmony Freiberg, and many more.
Since 1998, he has been the honorary conductor of the Philharmony Peking and has been regularly conducting at significant Chinese music-centers.
In August of 2000 Stefan Fraas was appointed to be the chief-conductor of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen.
For two years now, Stefan Fraas has been in charge of conducting courses in co-operation with colleges and church associations. He has been assistant lecturer at the University of Chemnitz/Zwickau since 1997. Also, he will be teaching orchestra conducting as a guest Professor at the college of music in Peking during the fall of 2001.
Since 1995 he has been a member of the commitee "Saxon Music Council" as well as the chairman of the Advisory Council for the cultur-area Vogtland. |
