Professor of Piano at Eastman from 1995 to 2008, Thomas Schumacher studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School, winning the highest honors at both schools. His teachers include Fisher Thompson, Robert Goldsand, Beveridge Webster, Adele Marcus, Bernard Greenhouse, Rachmael Weinstock, Raphael Hillyer, Raphael Bronstein, and Hans Letz. Thomas Schumacher was a prizewinner in the Busoni International Piano Competition (1962), and in the JUGG Award Competition (1963), leading to his New York Town Hall debut recital. A soloist with major orchestras including the Toronto Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and National Symphony, Schumacher performed the world premiere of David Diamond’s Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic in 1967. He is active as recitalist, adjudicator, lecturer, and in master classes throughout United States, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, China, Taiwan, and Japan. He has written study guides for the piano music of Brahms, Albéniz, and Rachmaninoff, and edited a critical edition of Albéniz’s Ibéria. Before coming to Eastman, Thomas Schumacher was on the faculty of the University of Maryland (1969-95; chair of piano, 1993-95), during that time winning the Maryland Creative and Performing Arts Award (1984) and the University’s Distinguished Faculty Award (1991). He has also been an associate artist faculty of the Levine School of Music, Washington, D.C. (1987-95), and a visiting professor at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music (2002-present).
Eastman School of Music
