Cow & Sow About Us

David Murray was born and raised in New
Hamburg, Ontario, the son of piano teacher and
church organist Gywinith Murray and trumpet
player Jim Murray. Music has always been a
part of his life. David grew up singing in church
and school choirs, taking piano lessons and
playing several instruments in the high school
and town bands. He played bassoon with the
Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Orchestra and went
on to study music at Wilfred Laurier University,
majoring in bassoon performance. During his
university years he was often called upon to
accompany his colleagues for recitals and
auditions. After two years of studies, David
came to the realization that he was not cut
out for a career in music. While working at
Rundle's Restaurant and searching for what
exactly he was cut out for, David met and later
married his wife Annamarie. A year after their
marriage, the couple travelled around Europe
and David worked on a dairy farm belonging to
Annamarie's aunt and uncle in Switzerland. He
had found his niche. When they returned to
Canada almost two years later, David enrolled
at the University of Guelph where he completed
his Associate Diploma in Agriculture. The Murrays
have been milking cows since 1986 on the farm
where Annamarie grew up. They have four children
who have all taken turns turning pages for their
father at many Cow and Sow performances.

CONTACT DAVID

Dominik Franken entered a world filled with classical music in
Duesseldorf, Germany in 1959. When Dominik was 8 years old, he
and his family moved to Wuppertal, and his physician/violinist father
set out to find him the very best teacher. His quest led him to Erich
Brandt, Concert Master of the Wuppertal Orchestra. Despite protestations
from Herr Brandt's wife, Dominik was taken on as a student and stayed
with Brandt until his university days. At age 12, Dominik decided that
he didn't like the high frequency of the violin and switched to the viola.
Soon he travelled to the United States with the Hamburg Youth Orchestra.
From an island in the Detroit River he viewed Canada and decided he
would go there someday. When he was 13, Dominik played a solo with
the Duesseldorfer Aerzte Orchestra (an orchestra of doctors and nurses,
founded and conducted by Prof. Dr. Franz Herman Franken) He was then
invited to join the German Youth Orchestra. Twice a year the group came
together, practiced two weeks and then toured for two weeks throughout
the world. Most memorable was a trip to Israel as the first German Orchestra
to do so after World War II, playing with the Israeli Youth Orchestra Dvorak's
New World Symphony. Dominik immigrated to Canada in 1987 and formed
the duo Cow and Sowwith his friend and neighbour, David Murray, in 1990.
Since then they have played many concerts together, including an annual
"shed concert" at the Murray farm. This is the second CD for the duo.

CONTACT DOMINIK