Established Organization Embraces New Leadership

Austin Chamber Music Center Welcomes

New Artistic Director, Michelle Schumann

Making the transition from a founder-lead organization to one that is lead by board-appointed artistic/executive director proved challenging. During the past four years, the Austin Chamber Music Center has done a 360-degree organization review, implemented one-year and five-year strategic plans, and created a board-lead artistic director search committee. When Canadian pianist, Michelle Schumann joins the Austin Chamber Music Center in September 2006, she inherits an organization with an annual operating budget of $374,000, a twelve-member board and four-member staff that produces approximately 170 concerts, masterclasses, and outreach events per year. In addition to her artistic planning and programming duties, Schumann will oversee an education program that enrolls more than 250 children and 50 adults annually and contracts 40 teachers.

Schumann comes to the Artistic Director position with a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin. Her extensive experience in chamber music includes performances in several international festivals and collaborations with leading ensembles throughout the U.S. Her appearances at Tanglewood, the Banff Festival of Music and Sound, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York City Ballet, and the Austin Lyric Opera offer Schumann a broad perspective of the music community at large.

Schumann has been a fixture in the Austin musical scene since arriving from Canada in 1996. Her appearances display a sense of eclecticism, bold musical expression, integration, scholarship and collaboration. Her education and collaborative music-making experiences paired with her communication skills, advocacy, and natural leadership have helped build and educate new audiences for concert music.

Additionally a committed teacher, Dr. Schumann serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Artist in Residence at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor where she is the founder and Artistic Director of the Hillman Visiting Artist Series. Having worked with some of the leading musicians of our time, including Anton Nell, Gregory Allen, Peter Serkin, James Dick, and Emanuel Ax, Schumann continues to lend her expertise to the Austin Chamber Music Center's student academy and summer chamber music workshop.

The Austin American-Statesman has described her performances as “masterly (and) alive to the rhythmic variety and dissonance of the music, while also drawing out every exotic and melodic color of the score.” The Statesman has described her performances as top arts events, and she has been nominated by the Austin Critics Table Awards for best instrumentalist (2003). Most recently, Schumann was the top prizewinner in the 2006 Janice K. Hodges Competition for Contemporary Piano Music.

Schumann enhances the Austin Chamber Music Center with her youthful energy, high artistic standards, and fresh marketing and programming strategies. On September 8 th , she will launch a concert season that boldly tests the outer limits of the chamber music genre. The 2006-2007 season, entitled Fringe InFusion , introduces an eclecticism that embodies the spirit of Austin's artistic community.

The opening concert, on September 8 & 9, Gypsy Muses , celebrates Schumann's debut as the organization's Artistic Director as it explores the folk-inspired melodies of Haydn, Dvorak, Bartok and Brahms. The season continues with Two To Tango , on November 3 & 4, a concert that daringly fuses classical elements with the untamed passion inherent in the Latin tango tradition.

The Carpe Diem String Quartet will join the Austin Chamber Music Center on January 19, 20 & 21, to perform Portraits of Genius and Eccentricity . This daring concert uncovers the manic brilliance of two hopelessly tormented composers, Robert Schumann and Glenn Gould. The season concludes on April 21 & 22, with Jazz Infusions , which invites audiences to experience the union between American Jazz and the European classical tradition.

The upcoming season reflects Schumann's innovative vision for the future of the Austin Chamber Music Center. As the organization survives the shift in leadership, it continues to evolve and solidify its importance in Austin's music community. With unique programs that feature rare repertoire and exciting collaborations with visiting artists, this year's concert series promises to be among the most electrifying arts events taking place in Austin.