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Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher have performed together as a piano duo for over twenty years. In addition to their studies at the conservatories in Dortmund, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, they received training from Renate Werner, Friedemann Rieger, and Claude Helffer in Paris (a DAAD stipend). Numerous prizes, such as the 1989 German Music Council Prize, Jeunesses musicales the same year, the Bellini Competition in 1991, and the Schubert Competition in Graz in 1992 soon led to a number of important engagements at home and abroad.
The duo performs regularly at the festivals of Schwetzingen, the Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Ludwigsburg, at the Bonner Herbst, The Berliner Festwochen, the Europäisches Musikfest Stuttgart as well as the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. Other engagements have occasioned a co-operation with renowned conductors such as Michael Gielen, Lothar Zagrosek, Emanuel Krivine, Heinz Holliger, Georges Prêtre, and Zubin Mehta.
In international terms Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher are one of the most important duos of our times. Intelligent programming remains one of their traits. Recently the Duo has performed with the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Berliner Symphoniker, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, and taatsorchester Saarbrücken, as well as with Orchestre National de Lyon. In addition to a series of seven recitals at the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Bechstein-Jubiläums-Tour, which have brought the two artists to the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, and the Philharmonie Berlin, among other venues, their current program includes concerts at the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the Rheingau Musik Festival, The Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and their debut at the Salzburg Festival.
Their discography includes works by J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Schubert, Grieg, Johannes Brahms, Max Reger, Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, Debussy, Ravel, Ligeti, Zimmerman, and Rihm. Their recording of Stockhausen Mantra was cited for awards by Le Monde de la musique and Diapason. |
