ERIK SCHUMANN

Erik Schumann was born in Cologne in 1982 as the son of German-Romanian-Japanese parents. He has performed as soloist with NDR Symphonic Orchestras Hamburg, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna and the Zürich Chamber Orchestras, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, 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 took part in festivals as the Salzburg Easter Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Schwetzinge Festspiele, Rheingau Music Festival and the Ravinia Music Festival Chicago.

Since the beginning of his musical career, Erik 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 and at the Shlomo-Mintz Violin Competition Sion, Switzerland. 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, Nicolas Altstaedt and Henri Sigfridsson. Together with his siblings Ken and Mark, and with Ayako Goto he forms a string quartet.

Erik Schumann’s debut-CD, featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s duo sonatas was published for the Avi Music label.

Erik Schumann plays a wonderful Stradivarius violin from 1713.