Prof. Erik Schumann

Erik Schumann, born in Cologne in 1982 as the son of German/Romanian-Japanese parents, has already performed as soloist with many orchestras in Europe, Asia, and the USA. Among them are the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bamberger Symphoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Sinfonia Varsovia, BBC Philharmonic and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Orchestra Tokyo and the National Symphony Orchestra Washington D. C. as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Conductors he worked with include Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda, Jiří Bělohlávek, Muhai Tang, Vassily Sinaisky, Günther Herbig, Marin Alsop, Howard Griffiths, Toshiyuki Kamioka, Juanjo Mena, Michael Sanderling, David Afkham and Leoš Svárovský. He performed Matthias Pintscher’s violon concerto „Mar‘eh“ with the BBC Scottish Symphony under the baton of the composer at the 2012 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Duo recitals with Henri Sigfridsson lead him to the chamber music hall of the Philharmonie Berlin as well as to the Louvre Paris among others.

He is a regular guest at festivals such as Lucerne Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Rheingau Musik Festival, Salzburg Easter Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Mozartfest Schwetzingen, Pacific Music Festival and the Ravinia Music Festival Chicago.

As a chamber musician Erik Schumann works with partners such as the Tokyo String Quartet, Daniel Müller-Schott, Alisa Weilerstein, Anna Vinnitskaya, Martin Fröst, Nils Mönkemeyer, Danjulo Ishizaka,Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Reto Bieri, Ralp Manno, José Gallardo, Viviane Hagner, Daniel Hope and Cyprien Katsaris. At the Kronberg Academy he played with Juri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer. He performed a duo recital with Christoph Eschenbach at Ooji Hall, Tokyo. Together with his siblings Ken and Mark as well as Liisa Randalu he forms a string quartet.

Erik Schumann’s CD, featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s duo sonatas (Henri Sigfridsson, piano), has been highly acclaimed as an outstanding debut by the press. In 2014 Erik Schumann will record the violin concerto by Brahms. Further highlights of this season include concerts with the Munich Symphony Orchestra and Ken-David Masur and a concert tour in South America with the
Bucharest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Benoît Fromanger.

His musical development has been significantly influenced by Zakhar Bron. Furthermore, he has attended master classes with Pinchas Zukerman, Miriam Fried, Shlomo Mintz, Hermann Krebbers and György Pauk.

Erik Schumann plays a violin by G.F. Pressenda from 1830 on generous loan from a private sponsor.

http://www.erikschumann.com