Biography
German-Canadian violinist Franka Larichelière-Banken is a young musician currently based in Montréal, Canada and in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Regularly playing concerts accross Europe and in Canada, Franka is building a career as an in-demand orchestral and chamber musician. She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, England with a Master of Music with Distinction in violin performance where she studied under the tutelage of Yair Kless and she received her Bachelor of Arts from the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, Austria as well as a Performance Certificate from the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Italy.
Franka began violin lessons at the age of nine and started her studies at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal in September 2009. She is the recipient of several prizes, including a scholarship from the Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur, the Special Prize at the Streichquartett Stipendien Wettbewerb der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, the Étoile Galaxy Prize of the Festival de Lanaudière and prizes at the Festival de musique classique de Pierre-De-Saurel. She has also been financially supported by the Sociaal Fonds Podiumkunsten, by Culture Moves Europe - Culture and Creativity, and by the Fondation Desjardins.
Franka has participated in international masterclasses and festivals such as Mozarteum Summer Academy, Domaine Forget, Meadowmount School of Music, Centre d’art Orford, International Music Academy Cagliari and International Mendelssohn Festival. She has received tuition from Tanja Becker-Bender, Ulf Wallin, Andrej Bielow, Michael Frischenschlager, Jan Sloman, Federico Agostini, Jean Angers, Esther Hoppe, Christian Altenburger, Eyal Kless, Marianne Piketty, Olivier Charlier, William van der Sloot, Stephan Picard, Maighréad McCrann, Thomas Brandis, Masuko Ushioda and Mayumi Seiler.
A keen chamber musician, Franka has performed in many venues and festivals, such as the Musikverein Graz, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Palais Ehrbar in Vienna, the Ostrava Center for New Music, the TivoliVredenburg and the Steirisches Kammermusik Festival. She also studied chamber music with Chia Chou, Reinhard Latzko and the Carmina Quartet and has played for musicians such as Pavel Gililov and Alfred Brendel.
Franka regularly plays with orchestras such as the Residentie Orkest Den Haag, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sinfonia Rotterdam, the Sinfonische Kammerorchester Berlin, the Noord Nederlands Orkest, the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, as well as with Phion, Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel. She currently plays on a Cornelius Schneider-Marfels violin made in 2015 and on a J. Strumphler bow kindly on loan from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds.
Franka has recently received funding from Culture Moves Europe to explore and research forgotten works by women composers together with international partner Aude St-Pierre. They have brought to life chosen works by women composers and have connected to a new, larger audience. This project was also aiming to build an exchange between the cities of Cologne and Amsterdam, and to create an active educational conversation around women composers throughout history.
Teaching
Apart from playing the violin, Franka really enjoys teaching and sharing her love of music with people of all ages. In the last years, she has been teaching violin at Le Conservatoire in Vienna, at the Volksschule Mariagrün in Graz, at the Stichting Leerorkest Amsterdam, at the Camp Musical Saint-Alexandre, at the Camp Musical Père Lindsay in Canada as well as in her private studio. Franka has been selected as Ambassador for the Benedetti Foundation of Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti in 2020 and in 2021.
