Franz-Josef Streuff (1931 - 2011)
Franz-Josef Streuff was born in 1931 in Rees, a nice little German town on the Lower Rhine near the Dutch border. Early piano and organ lessons with the former organist opened up his sense of harmony and the art of variation. From 1944-46 he was evacuated. Then, from 1946-51 Franz-Josef attended the Gymnasium at Werl, east of Dortmund, and the Abitur. Studied music in Cologne and took private lessons in England, and also studied English language and literature, in all of which he took the necessary examinations. He worked as a teacher of music and English at a 'Gymnasium' (as it is called in Germany).
Franz-Josef always kept in contact with some of his former pupils, with whom he enjoyed playing symphonies à quatre mains or attending to other musical activities.
Next to music, the important things in his life were his good wife and four children, one daughter and three sons. They built a house of their own in 1971/72 in which he and his wife have lived since, enjoying singing in a choir with good friends, and keeping an open house with swimming-pool in the garden.
Some of the recordings on Piano Society were made by Franz-Josef on his old grand-piano, which was built in 1910 by H.G.Francke, Leipzig.
Franz-Josef Streuff died in september 2011 of a stroke.
