Jenny Fuhr

Born in Cologne, Germany, Jenny Fuhr started to learn violin at an early age and took up both recorder and piano lessons. She regularly participated at the national music competition “Jugend Musiziert” and has been awarded 1st prize in recorder solo (2000) and in the ensemble category of Early Music (2001). After becoming a “Jungstudent” at the music conservatory of Cologne in 2001, Jenny Fuhr decided to focus her study on non-Western music, taking a degree in ethnomusicology in Berlin. She specialised in African Music and Performance Studies at the “School of Oriental and African Studies” (University of London) where she gained a Master’s degree in Music in 2006. She regularly peformed in various music groups, such as the “SOAS Klezmer Group” and started to present her research on radio programmes, work that she has continued up until now as a freelancer for WDR3, BR-Klassik, HR2-Kultur and the SRF.

Since 2005, Jenny Fuhr has conducted research on the music of Madagascar, gaining a PhD from the University of Southampton in 2011 with work based on her own experience of learning and performing Malagasy music (“Experiencing Rhythm: Contemporary Malagasy Music and Identity”). Together with Erick Manana, she continues to live her love and fascination for Madagascar’s musical heritage, a musical adventure and cultural encounter that the two musicians enjoy in their duo work and their joint project of the “Madagascar Roots Band”.