Main Street
| Main Street | |
|---|---|
 Mainstreet, last 'right in the middle.' Concert, Vienna 2008. From left: Anita Horn, Antje Kohler, Willi Dussmann, Bernd Kronowetter, Christoph Wigelbeyer. |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | A cappella pop |
| founding | 1980 |
| resolution | 2008 |
| Website | http://www.mainstreet.at/ |
| Last occupation | |
| Willi Dussmann | |
| Anita Horn | |
| Antje Kohler | |
| Bernd Kronowetter | |
| Christoph Wigelbeyer | |
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Main Street was an Austrian a cappella quintet, the German-speaking parodies were from pop hits to the best, the most part in Viennese dialect were presented.
Until 1997
The group was founded in 1980 as a quartet by Willi Dussmann when the ORF was producing the talent show “Die große Chance” . It was only on the day before the broadcast that it found its name Mainstreet (“Hauptstraße”, spelling: MAINSTREET): Passers-by had been interviewed on Vienna's Kärntner Straße and a handful of suggestions were made.
Mainstreet, which understood the “Austrian answer to The Manhattan Transfer ” , was very well received in the first broadcast on the 1980 national holiday. As a result, there were radio productions at most German and Swiss broadcasters, followed by concert tours and engagements, from jazz festivals to cultural evenings to company galas. To date, they have appeared in around 100 television shows.
Until 1997, the group performed with their own five-piece backing band. Occasionally they were also accompanied by big bands at home and abroad, including the Richard Oesterreicher Big Band . Mainstreet produced three long-playing records and an international fan club informed the fans.
All musicians also worked in all other branches of the industry: advertising, TV shows, voice actors, CD and live productions for international stars, Eurovision song contest, talent promotion, musicals, hit tours, etc.
The a cappella group
The idea of singing a cappella without an accompanying musician came up in 1995 in a train compartment on the way to a concert in Kitzbühel, when the four of them used the time to rehearse - of course without an accompanying instrument. They found so much taste in their vocal arrangements that, to the annoyance of the accompanying musicians who had traveled ahead, they announced that they would "soon" become an a cappella group.
The quartet was expanded to a quintet in 1997 (Willi Dussmann, Kai Peterson, Stephan Gleixner, Patricia Simpson and Johanna Fabian). The entire repertoire was rearranged, but above all the lyrics from this point on were all German, partly in the Viennese dialect and always with a dash of cabaret . Mainstreet was considered a competence in matters of a cappella singing. The pasties of well-known hits were enthusiastically received by the audience and secured the group a permanent place, not only in the German-speaking music scene.
In 2000 the group split into the groups "Mainstreet" and " Die Echten ". Willi Dussmann, who owns the naming rights, engaged Bernd Kronowetter, Renè Kovats, Anita Horn and Marianne Schöftner for “Mainstreet”. René Kovats left the group in 2006; After leading the Albert Reiter music school in Waidhofen an der Thaya until 2011, he is now the music school director of the municipal music school Groß-Enzersdorf. Christoph Wigelbeyer succeeded him at Mainstreet. Marianne Schöftner left in 2007 to devote herself to her own projects. Antje Kohler took her place. Since then the group has consisted of ...
At the end of December 2008 the group broke up. Dussmann started his solo career in 2011 with his first solo album "Losgelöst".
Last occupation
- Willi Dussmann
He is the founder and the only remaining member of the original ensemble. In addition to Mainstreet, for which he contributes texts and arrangements, he is in demand as a choir specialist on stage and in the studio. He worked for Harry Belafonte , Peter Alexander , Udo Jürgens , Harald Juhnke , Caterina Valente , Peter Kraus , Marlène Charell , Drafi Deutscher , Nicole , Andy Borg , Claudia Jung and others. a .; at the Eurovision Song Contest in Rome in 1991, he sang with Thomas Forstner .
- Anita Horn
Anita Horn comes from the Waldviertel . She completed an instrumental and vocal pedagogy degree in jazz singing and classical vocal training at the Vienna Franz Schubert Conservatory . Since 1995 she has been a soloist in the jazz area and also a chorus player in various TV and tour productions, for example with Udo Jürgens , Peter Alexander , Peter Kraus , Hansi Hinterseer . She is also known as the musical director of the gospel group “Wedding 4”, as a member of the vocal quartet “Vienna Voicings”, with the “Anita Horn Trio” and for her participation in numerous CD productions, for example by Wolfgang Ambros and Toni Pfeffer .
- Antje Kohler
Antje Kohler was born in Villingen-Schwenningen , Germany and has lived in Vienna since 2001, where she studied musicals at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna until 2006 . Various appearances before and during the course, including a. as Marie in the world premiere of “Caspar Hauser - Das Musical” in Ansbach , in the ensemble in “ Die Zirkusprinzessin ” at the Lower Austrian Operetta Summer Langenlois and as Nellie in “ Jekyll & Hyde ” on the Staatz rock stage. In 2005 she was a finalist at the National Singing Competition in Berlin in the musical / chanson category. Antje gave concerts with the a cappella group “Velvet Voices” in 2006 and 2009 and is also the singer of the jazz formation “heart tones” , where she continues to sing in the Austrian dialect.
- Bernd Kronowetter
Born in Vienna, he is Mainstreets Bass , and otherwise a trained opera singer with a passion for jazz and modern music: studied solo singing, opera, at the Vienna Conservatory . Appearances in the Wiener Musikverein , in concert halls in Vienna and Klagenfurt. Mörbisch Lake Festival ( Parisian Life , The Bird Trader ) and at the Salzburg Festival . Two tours to Japan with the Stadttheater Baden - 1998: One night in Venice , 1999: Der Freischütz .
- Christoph Wigelbeyer
The Welser graduated from singing school, piano and violin in his hometown and at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz as part of the Upper Austrian promotion of young talent . Thereafter, he studied music education and instrumental music education with a focus on singing and choir conducting, as well as a three-year solo singing training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna , as well as master classes and private lessons. As a choir director he worked a. a. for the sound bow. Since 2000 he has been teaching at the Vienna HIB , a grammar school with a focus on music, has been a long-time member of the Vienna Chamber Choir and the Vienna Singing Association , has been singing in the vocal ensemble "Company of Music" since 2002 and in Mainstreet since 2006 .
Antje Kohler
Anita Horn
Bernd Kronowetter
Christoph Wigelbeyer
Willi Dussmann
Discography
- in the middle. (14 songs, 2008) This CD is the last of this ensemble that broke up at the end of 2008 after the “mittendrin.” Tour through Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Mainstreet's last appearance was on December 21st in front of a sold out house in the Vienna Metropol with the Christmas show Christmas g'spian .
- Mainstreet 25 - The Jubilee Edition (double CD, 2005; on CD_2 numbers from three out of print LPs, 1980–1988)
- Christmas g'spian
- dialect
- Wödhits. Without a cape. (out of print)
Web links
- Mainstreet at Discogs (English)
- http://www.mainstreet.at/
- All texts and numerous audio samples.
- Press report about one of the concerts
Individual evidence
- ^ Declaration by Willi Dussmann on the Mainstreet website ( Memento of the original from July 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
