Pascal Schumacher (born 12 March 1979 in Luxemburg) is a Luxembourgish jazz musician, composer and percussionist who has founded a number of groups including the Pascal Schumacher Quartet. He also plays and composes classical chamber music.

Education

Pascal Schumacher studied classical percussion at the Luxembourg Conservatory. He continued his studies at the Strasbourg Conservatory and at the jazz department of the

Royal Conservatory of Brussels The Royal Conservatory of Brussels (french: Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) is a historic conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Starting its activities in 1813, it received its official name in 1832. Provid ...

. He obtained master's degrees in jazz-vibraphone at the

Royal Conservatory of The Hague The Royal Conservatoire ( nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Nether ...

with Frits Landesbergen and in musicology at the

Marc Bloch University The University Marc Bloch, also known as Strasbourg II or UMB was a university in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. As of 2006, it had around 13,000 students. Its name used to be ''Université des Sciences Humaines'' (University of Social Sciences), but ...

in Strasbourg. Among those who assisted him in his studies were

Gary Burton Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be h ...

, David Friedman,

Stefon Harris Stefon DeLeon Harris (born March 23, 1973) is an American jazz vibraphonist. Biography A native of Albany, New York, Harris intended to work for the New York Philharmonic until he heard the music of Charlie Parker. During the 1990s he recorded ...

and

Charles Loos Charles Loos (born 29 July 1951 in Brussels) is a Belgian jazz pianist and composer. In 1972 he began studying composition and jazz orchestra at Berklee College of Music in Boston, while he already followed a classical formation in Belgium. ...

."Pascal Schumacher"
, ''All About Jazz''. Retrieved 5 January 2011.

Career

Schumacher cofounded the "Interchange" ensemble with saxophonist Nadine Kauffmann (1995) and, in 2001, the experimental percussion group "Stroke X". From 1997, he became increasingly involved in improvised music, especially jazz, playing with a number of different bands and performing with a variety of artists. In 2002, he set up his own Pascal Schumacher Quartet with

Jef Neve Jef Neve (born 8 March 1977) is a Belgian jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Life and career Neve was born in Turnhout, Belgium.Hope, Alan (22 July 2014"Face of Flanders: Jef Neve" Flanders Today. By the age of 14 he was composing ...

(piano), Christophe Devisscher (bass) and Teun Verbruggen (drums). Their first album, ''Change Of The Moon'' was released in March 2004, providing the band with opportunities to travel across Europe as well as to Australia and South Africa. Their second album, ''Personal Legend'' was released in 2005 and their third, ''Silbergrau'' in 2007. In a preview of the quartet's contribution to the London Jazz Festival in November 2010, Thomas Gray characterized Schumacher (vibes) and Franz von Chossy (piano) as "resourceful improvisers, with an abundance of lucid ideas effortlessly articulated over the many shifts of metre. Meanwhile," he comments, "Christophe Devisscher (on bass) and Jens Düppe (on drums) play with a mix of muscle, precision and exquisite dynamic sensitivity." With his quartet, Schumacher has performed at a number of jazz festivals including the

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam. This is because the Statenhal where the festival w ...

(Rotterdam), London Jazz Festival,

Wangaratta Festival of Jazz The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is an annual Australian festival of jazz and blues, founded in 1990 by the City of Wangaratta with Adrian Jackson as its first director. It is held at various venues in the town of Wangaratta, north east of the ...

Copenhagen Jazz Festival Copenhagen Jazz Festival is a jazz event every July in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Copenhagen Jazz Festival was established in 1979, but beginning in 1964 Tivoli Gardens presented a series of concerts under the name Copenhagen Jazz Festiva ...

and

JVC Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hir ...

(Paris). They have also performed at clubs and festivals in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Munich, Liverpool Manchester, Athens, Warsaw,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, Toronto,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

and

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. Pascal played as soloist with

Zürcher Kammerorchester The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Zürcher Kammerorchester; ZKO, German abbreviation) is a Swiss chamber orchestra based in Zurich. The ZKO's principal concert venue in Zurich is the Tonhalle. The ZKO also performs in Zurich at the Schauspielhaus Zü ...

, WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln, la Camerata Megaron Athens, l’

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg The Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra ( lb, Lëtzebuerger philharmoneschen Orchester, french: Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg), abbreviated to OPL, is a symphony orchestra based in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. The orchestra formerly perfo ...

, l’Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg, United Instruments of Lucilin, the

Kammerorchester Berlin The Kammerorchester Berlin has been in existence since 1945 and its first director was the conductor Helmut Koch. Already in the 1950s, the orchestra succeeded in making a name for itself. Among other awards it received the ''Japanese Record Prize ...

, the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt and the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie. In 2004, Jef Neve and Pascal Schumacher set up a duo (vibraphone and piano) playing a new kind of chamber music combining the sounds of

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, ...

and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

."Pascal Schumacher & Jef Neve Duets"
Retrieved 5 January 2011. The duo has been warmly welcomed by the

Philharmonie Luxembourg The Philharmonie Luxembourg, also known officially as the Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte Concert Hall (french: Salle de concerts grande-duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte, german: Konzertsaal Großherzogin Joséphine-Charlotte), is a concert hall ...

for the "Rising Stars" concert series in some of the largest concert halls in Europe in association with the European Concert Hall Organisation.Matthias Naske, "Pascal Schumacher / Jef Neve Duo: Face to Face"
''Monday Night Productions''. Retrieved 5 January 2011. Pascal Schumacher also teaches at the Luxembourg Conservatory.

Awards

*IKB Jugend-Förderpreis (1998) *Prix Norbert Stelmes des Jeunesses Musicales Luxembourg (1999) *Together with the Pascal Schumacher Quartet, First Prize and Public Prize, Tremplin Jazz Avignon (2004) * Django d'Or for New Talent, Belgian Jazz Trophy (2005) *Pascal Schumacher has been selected for the 2009-2010 Rising Stars program organized by the European Concert Hall Organization (2008) *ECHO Jazz, "Instrumentalist of the year International, special instruments, Vibraphone", Germany (2012) *Pascal Schumacher wins the Export Artist 2012 award by the Luxembourgish music export office Music:Lx. *Pascal Schumacher wins the JTI Eurocore Jazz Award 2013.

Discography (selection)

* ''Change of the Moon'', (

Igloo An igloo (Inuit languages: , Inuktitut syllabics (plural: )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow. Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only b ...

, 2004) * ''Personal Legend'', (

, 2006) * ''Silbergrau'', (

, 2007) * ''Here We Gong'', ( Enja, (2009) * ''Face to Face'', (Enja, 2010) * ''Bang My Can'', (Enja, 2011) * ''Left Tokyo Right'', (Laborie, 2015) * ''Afrodiziak'', (MNP/ MPS/

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best ab ...

, 2016) * ''The Woman One Longs For'' starring Marlene Dietrich, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden (1929/2012) DVD * ''Double Quartet - Henning Siewerts'' (Pirouet, 2016) * ''ÜberBach - Arash Safaian'' (Neue Meister, Edel, 2016) * ''Drops & Points'' (Modulating Music 2017) * ''Drops & Points Reworks'' (Modulating Music 2018) * ''SOL'' (Neue Meister, Edel 2020) * ''SOL - The Mudam Session'' (Neue Meister, Edel 2020) * ''LUNA'' with Echo Collective (Neue Meister, Edel 2022) * ''CTRL Variations'' with United Instruments of Lucilin (Neue Meister, Edel 2023)

References

External links

Official WebsitePascal Schumacher at MUDAM 2020 YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schumacher, Pascal 1979 births Living people Luxembourgian jazz musicians Musicians from Luxembourg City Luxembourgian composers Luxembourgian percussionists Royal Conservatory of The Hague alumni Igloo Records artists Jazz vibraphonists