Pianist Michelle Schumann is a key force behind the music at the Victoria Bach Festival in her role as Chamber Music Director and performer. Her unabashed musical expression and creative collaborations with musicians, composers, and audiences bring a vibrant energy to Festival programs.
Michelle is also a fixture in Austin’s music scene, where she is Artistic Director of the Austin Chamber Music Center. She has won awards from the Austin Critics Table for Best Chamber Music Performance, Best Instrumentalist, and Best Body of Work/Season. She was named among the Top 5 Leaders in the Arts in the Austin Under Forty Awards and received first prize in the 2006 Janice Hodges Competition.
We caught up with Michelle as she was preparing to come to Victoria for the 2014 Victoria Bach Festival.
VBF: We missed you at Festival last year! Will you fill us in on your recent projects?
Michelle: Yes, I missed y’all too, and it’s great to be back! My biggest “project” for last year, of course, was raising my daughter for the first year of her life! Ivy will be with me at the 2014 VBF, and I can’t wait to show her the sounds of this great festival.
This past year, I also had a terrific year of playing. I performed the Chopin F Minor Piano Concerto with the Balcones Chamber Orchestra in January and Rhapsody in Blue with the University of Mary Hardin Baylor Wind Ensemble in April. In February, I performed a gorgeous piece with Ballet Austin featuring solo piano works by Bach and Philip Glass. Plus, I had a smashing season with the Austin Chamber Music Center performing fantastic chamber works by Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven and Aaron Jay Kernis, among others.
VBF: Tell us a little about music that you are performing with Raul Jaurena on Thursday, June 12. What can we expect from this concert and, for those who don’t know, what in the heck is a bandoneón?
Michelle: Well, first off, the bandoneón is the quintessential instrument of tango. Basically a button accordion invented in Germany, it sings, speaks, laughs, sobs and makes all listeners beg for more, more, more! Raul Jaurena spent time touring and performing directly with composer Astor Piazzolla. In fact, Piazzolla publicly acclaimed Raul to be the greatest living bandoneónist. Quite an endorsement from the tango master himself!
We will be performing Piazzolla’s tangos written originally for his quintet (bandoneón, violin, electric guitar, bass, piano). The tango is a mesmerizing genre … the melancholy, excitement, and sultriness of the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms will take people to a different world!
VBF: What are you looking forward to at the 2014 Victoria Bach Festival?
Michelle: Always, the people … such great musicians, such terrific audiences and such wonderful supporters. This festival has some amazing performances lined up from Melissa Marse’s solo recital, to the tango extravaganza, to the St. Matthew Passion with two baroque orchestras, to the finale with Richard Stoltzman, the world’s most renown clarinetist. It’s a fantastic week of music that we’ll all get to experience together. What a delight! Can’t wait to be a part of it with everyone!!
Michelle performs with bandoneón master Raul Jaurena on Thursday, June 12 and with clarinet virtuoso Richard Stoltzman on Saturday, June 14.
Michelle Schumann performing Bach’s Prelude in B-flat minor at the 2011 Victoria Bach Festival
