Erik Schumann | Violin

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Erik Schumann, born in Cologne in 1982 as the son of German / Romanian-Japanese parents, has already performed as soloist with orchestras in Europe, Asia and the USA, among them are the NDR Symphonic Orchestras Hamburg / Hanover, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna and the Zurich Chamber Orchestras, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Sinfonia Varsovia, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra Washington D. C., NHK Orchestra Tokyo as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra Washington.
Conductors he worked with include Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda, Jiri Belohlavek, Muhai Tang and Vassily Sinaisky. Furthermore, he has already been the soloist of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra numerous times.

In 2009/10 Erik Schumann will e. g. perform with the Symphony Orchestra of WDR Cologne, BBC Manchester, State Orchestra of Saarland as well as with the Symphonic Orchestras of Hof and Nurnberg. Duo recitals lead him to the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the chamber music hall of the Philharmonie Berlin as well as to the Louvre Paris among others.

The 2008/09 season included Erik Schumann’s highly successful debut with the NHK Orchestra Tokyo, concerts with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and re-invitations to the Orchestre de Paris and the Toyko Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

He took part in such important festivals as the Salzburg Easter Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Mozart-Fest Schwetzingen, Rheingau Music Festival and the Ravinia Music Festival Chicago.

Since the beginning of his musical career, Erik Schumann has won several awards: First prize at the 7th International Wieniawski-Lipinski Violin Competition in Lublin, Poland, prize winner at the Jacques Thibaud International Violin Competition (2002) and at the Shlomo-Mintz Violin Competition Sion, Switzerland (2003). Erik Schumann received a grant from the "German National Academic Foundation" as well as from the "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben". In 2004 he was honoured with the Bernstein Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

As a chamber musician Erik Schumann works with partners such as the Tokyo String Quartet, Claudio Bohorquez, Markus Groh, Nils Mönkemeyer, Nicolas Altstaedt and Henri Sigfridsson. Together with his siblings Ken and Mark, and with Ayako Goto he forms a string quartet. At the Kronberg Academy 2004 he played with Juri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer and Daniel Hope. Alongside Lars Vogt, he supports the project “Rhapsody in School”. In May 2008 he performed a duo recital with Christoph Eschenbach at Ooji Hall, Tokyo.

Erik Schumann's debut-CD, featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s duo sonatas (Henri Sigfridsson, piano), was published for the Avi Music label (May 2008) and has been celebrated as an outstanding debut by the press.

His musical development has been decisively influenced by Zakhar Bron, with whom Erik Schumann is studying at the Cologne Conservatory. Moreover, he has attended master classes with Pinchas Zukerman, Miriam Fried, Shlomo Mintz, Hermann Krebbers and György Pauk.

Erik Schumann plays a Stradivarius (1713) as a friendly loan from private property.

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