Erik Schumann was born in Cologne in 1982 and began studying violin at home when he was four years old. His musical development has been decisively influenced by his teacher, Zakhar Bron, with whom Erik Schumann now studies at the Cologne Conservatory. Moreover, he has attended master classes with Miriam Fried, Shlomo Mintz, Hermann Krebbers and György Pauk.
biography
Since the beginning of his musical career, Erik Schumann’s impressive violin-play and his technical brilliance has been acknowledged with many awards: At the age of 12 he won the first prize at the German National Competition “Jugend musiziert“ in the “solo violin“ category. Other prizes have included, for instance, the first prize at the 7th International Wieniawski–Lipinski Violin Competition in Lublin, Poland. He was pricewinner at the Jacques Thibaud International Violin Competition in 2002 and at the Shlomo Mintz Violin Competition Sion, Switzerland, one year later. In 2002 he won the “Prix Européen d’encouragement” and in 2003 the Cultural Award of Northrhine-Westphalia for Young Artists.
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.
Erik Schumann has played as a soloist with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna and the Zurich Chamber Orchestras, the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn,with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Augsburg and Bielefeld, with the Düsseldorfer Symphony, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine and the Orchestre National de France, with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the NDR Symphonic Orchestras Hamburg/Hannover, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Orchestre de Paris, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to name but a few.
He has toured throughout Europe and the USA, as well as the People’s Republic of China and several times throughout Japan, where he played in 2005 with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach . Erik Schumann has performed in the most important concert halls of the world, including the Prince Regent’s Theatre in Munich, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Victoria Hall Genf, the Musikhalle in Hamburg the Stadtcasino in Basel, the Suntory Hall Tokio , the Seoul Arts Center, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in the Salle Pleyel Paris. In the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, he participated in the traditional New Year’s Concert in 2004.
The young violinist took part in such important festivals as the Usedom Music Festival, the Kissinger Sommer Festival the Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mozart-Fest in Schwetzingen, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Ravinia Music Festival in Chicago.
One of Erik Schumann’s greatest supporters, Christoph Eschenbach, has invited him to the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, as well as to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
Erik Schumann belongs with Nicolas Altstaedt and Peter von Wienhardt to the AbsoluTrio. At the Kronberg Academy 2004 he played with Juri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer and Daniel Hope.
Erik Schumann performs on 1722 Stradivarius violin "Jupiter" on loan from Nippon Music Foundation .
