The horn players of the Feldmusik Sarnen together with other kanton brass band associations have decided to establish the French Horn Group Obwalden to keep up the French Horn tradition in Obwalden and to bring the instruments’ diversity closer to the audience.
The Horn Group story began back in 1995 with an Advent Concert in Lungern. The concert recieved big approval from the numerous audience. It was clear after this concert that the Horn Group Obwalden Association will carry on.
The Horn Group consists of professional musicians, music students and amateur musicians of all ages.
Along with traditional Advent Concerts the Horn Group especially performs at big companies occasions, birthdays, anniversaries and at the different communities’ occasions in Obwalden kanton. Beside that the Horn Group has concerts in different parts of the Switzerland. The Swiss television invited the Horn Group to participate in the folk program „ Fensterplatz“ in spring 2000.
The Horn Group giggs in different cast accoding to occasion. From trio through quartet, sextet, octet until the horn choir. The repertoire is very varied. The Horn Group plays works of Teleman, Händel, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Bruckner, Wagner etc in the classical field. Original compositions are also available alongside with good arrangements in the entertainment music. In addition the hunting music is also maintained by the Horn Group and is blown during the hunting season at different occasions.
The Horn Group Obwalden organised already the 7th International Obwalden Horn Festival in May 2009 to make the french horn famous in the Switzerland. The last six festivals were a big sucsess with professors Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatkovic, Thomas Müller, Jakob Hefti, Georg Sonnleitner and Lukas Christinat and more than hundred participants from the Switzerland, Europe, America and Japan.