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KAI SCHUMACHER
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| Kai Schumacher
received his first piano lessons at the age of five, his first |
| public performance
was at the age of seven, and his orchestral debut |
| (with Shostakovich's
Second Piano Concerto) took place when he was 15. |
| At first glance,
the classic story of a young prodigy. But the piano was for |
| him in the
true sense of the word a plaything and not some piece of sports |
| equipment;
music was a passion and not a discipline. After receiving his |
| school diploma,
Schumacher was accepted at the Folkwang Hochschule in |
| Essen (Germany)
- even though at that point he had attended more |
| punkrock events
than symphony concerts. He was awarded the Folkwang |
| piano prize
and was given a prize by the Köhler-Osbahr Foundation; |
| Schumacher
played his concert examination in 2009, which received the |
| citation "outstanding".
In addition to his studies with Till Engel, he worked |
| with the American
pianist Guy Livingston in Amsterdam, and studied |
| chamber music
with Andreas Reiner. |
|
|
| .. |
As a result,
Kai Schumacher's repertory places special emphasis on contemporary American
music for |
|
the piano.
In addition to numerous European premiere performances, he works closely
with composers |
|
of the younger
generation: for example in his project "Darling, I'm indeed useless to
you - 12 Variations |
|
without Amanda
Palmer" (premiere January 2009) for which 12 composers, ranging from jazz
to |
|
avantgarde,
wrote one variation each based on a theme composed by Kai Schumacher. In
cooperation |
|
with the Duisburg
Philharmonic, he is developing new forms for concert presentation, mixing
classic and |
|
contemporary
piano music with rockmusic and electronic sounds, also using light and
video installations |
|
to form a
collage that attracts younger audiences and older critics as well. But
Kai Schumacher is not |
|
only active
as a proponent of modern music; he also concertizes regularly as a soloist,
as the pianist of |
|
the Trio Kaliya,
and as a keyboard player with the indie/folk band Mobilée. Besides
Germany, he played |
|
concerts in
Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Lithuania
and South- |
|
Korea. |
|
|
....... |
|
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|
