Though Duo Françaix is named after a French composer and pianist—Jean Françaix (1912–1997; he wrote a handful of pieces for guitar, including one for guitar duo, called Divertissement, in 1982)— Isabella Selder (left in the video) is German and Eliška Lenhartová (right) is Czech. They met while studying guitar at the Academy of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar, Germany, several years ago; now both are master’s candidates at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Both also perform solo (and each has won numerous competitions) and teach guitar in the Augsburg/Munich area of Germany.
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In this video, produced by the folks at Siccas Guitars, Duo Françaix render a lovely version of Enrique Granados’ Danzas Españolas Op. 37, No. 2 ‘Oriental,’ originally written for piano in 1890. Isabella plays a 1981 Dominique Field guitar, while Eliška plucks a 2015 Ennio Giovanetti model from 2015. And if you enjoyed that, check out the Duo playing the aforementioned Françaix piece, Divertissement, from the same Siccas session.