Folk music is a continuous source of small-minded conservatism, right? Anyone who approaches the Angelika-Kauffmann-Haus, the 17th-century building in Schwarzenberg in the Bregenzerwald, with such prejudices, should be prepared for a surprise. Evelyn Fink-Mennel, born in Andelsbuch in Vorarlberg in 1972, world traveller, back in her homeland since 2010, is something akin to a searcher of the source of regional folk music. She is barefoot when she receives me, with a black coffee in hand. We engage in a bit of small talk, she finishes off a few emails after she has poured me a coffee and lets out a cheer – just like that. “Do you now understand the difference between cheering and yodelling?”, she asks casually. Well. I had asked what the difference is, but hadn’t expected the lady herself to start cheering straight away! I had entertained several expectations of a trained classical musician with a proclivity for the string quartet. I had not been prepared for this friendly yet odd-ball bundle of energy that can only be described as a cool mixture of Annette Humpe in her later years with the Berlin band Ideal and a smart university professor.

Thinking about the things that Evelyn Fink-Mennel has done in recent years alone would be enough to trigger an immediate nervous breakdown in people with an average level of energy. A radio programme on Austria’s public radio, ORF, for instance, in which she played what she considers true folk music. “Folk music isn’t that twee kitsch that it is frequently confused with”, she says. “Folk music is the medium with which entire countries, towns, indeed individual valleys once created their very own identity.” Tracking down as many traces of this folk music is the greatest passion of this musician from Vorarlberg. And making music, of course, which, “however, frequently draws the short straw”.

She established “Sägewerk”, the children’s orchestra, at the Bregenzerwald Music School. However, she is better known in Vorarlberg for being a member of the “Stemmeisen und Zündschnur” ensemble since 1991 (now known as “Zündschnur & Band). “The group had an important influence on the local dialect movement”, Evelyn Fink-Mennel explains. She also runs the website www.migration.at – a project which presents portraits of musically active immigrants in Vorarlberg.

Ms Fink-Mennel lived and worked in Vienna for over 20 years, including a stint at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Now she’s back. Her husband, an architect, converted the barn of the old Kauffmann house into a refuge made from wood, glass and concrete. So why did she return to her homeland? “We didn’t want to deprive our children of the life here”, she answers. “It’s an idyll, after all.” And your home? “Yes, of course. Home too. Even though the term ‘home’ sometimes needs to be freed from dust, as it were.” Like folk music itself. With Evelyn, there is nothing to worry about in this respect. She can be found singing into a wooden milk sieve in the church, or teaching managers to cheer. Oh, she also has a part-time job researching folk music in the Lake Constance region at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory. Sounds a bit on the jejune side, but you can rest assured that when Evelyn is involved, things are anything but boring!