The final "Thank You's" and piece on my senior recital at The Ohio State University. April 13, 2014 7pm Hughes Auditorium Born in Parkenstein, Bavaria, Franz Strauss had begun his musical career by the age of 7, playing the violin at a wedding dance. After musical study with his uncles Johann Georg Walter and Franz Michael Walter, in which he learned to play the clarinet, guitar, and all brass instruments, Franz Strauss at the age of 15 entered the service of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria as a guitarist. His study on the horn continued, and it was the horn that would become his major instrument. In 1847 he joined the Bavarian court orchestra, a position he held until his retirement in 1889. Franz Strauss also served as a professor at the Academy of Music in Munich from 1871 until 1896 and served from 1875 until 1896 as the conductor of the amateur orchestra "Wilde Gung'l." His Introduction, Theme and Variations Op. 13 is one of many "character pieces" for horn and piano that he wrote for his own instrument. Using the influences of Rossini and Schubert, Strauss takes an instrument known for it's strong lyrical lines, and creates a standard for viruostic horn playing, which is son Richard would eventually build upon with his own works for solo and orchestral horn.