Bio

Dr. Elizabeth Schumann has a diverse career portfolio of projects, recordings, and performances which have brought her all over the world as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. The Washington Post noted her playing as “deft, relentless, and devastatingly good—the sort of performance you experience not so much with your ears as your solar plexus.”

The first place winner of both the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition and the Pacific International Piano Competition, Elizabeth has won over 25 prizes and awards in other major national and international competitions, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Elizabeth was honored with the prestigious Gilmore Young Artists Award, and was highlighted in a PBS Television documentary on the Gilmore Festival.

She has performed in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Bösendorfer Saal, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, and Montreal’s Place des Arts. She was featured at the Cannes Film Festival, the Gilmore Festival, Australia’s Huntington Festival, the Ravinia “Rising Stars” Series, and National Public Radio's “Performance Today”, and her recitals have been broadcast live on public radio and television in cities around the world, including Washington D.C., New York, Sydney, Cleveland, Montréal, Dallas, and Chicago.

As a dedicated chamber musician and proponent of community engagement, Elizabeth is a core member of the Ives Collective, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, and Ensemble San Francisco, a piano quartet dedicated to inspiring a more inclusive world. Elizabeth also conceived and created Son et Lumiére: an ongoing performance series that transforms outdoor urban spaces with live music accompanied by large scale video projections to reach beyond the concert hall and bring music into accessible public spaces. The goal of the series is to allow audiences to meet music on their own terms and experience its power without barriers of price or pretense.

Elizabeth and her sister, Sonya Schumann, formed the Schumann Duo to engage diverse audiences with innovative combinations of piano music, theater, literature, art, and technology. The Schumann Duo’s tours of the US, Canada, and Australia were acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. In response to declining funding for arts education in the United States, Elizabeth devised and directed Piano Carnival, a Schumann Duo project to introduce free, high quality classical concert music to children in areas without arts education. Over 20,000 copies of Piano Carnival have been distributed for free, and multimedia lesson plans and the Piano Carnival iPad and iPhone applications are available free online.

Elizabeth has carried on the pedagogical tradition of her teacher, Sergei Babayan, as faculty at Summer and Winter Performing Arts with Juilliard, Itzhak Perlman’s Perlman Music Program, and the Crowden Chamber Music Workshop. She is the founder and director of the Schumann Studio, a recording space in San Francisco designed to provide an individually tailored recording experience for classical musicians.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Music Department, Stanford University (2023 - Present)
  • Billie Bennett Achilles Director of Keyboard Studies, Stanford University (2023 - Present)
  • Piano Faculty, Summer Performing Arts at The Juilliard School (2022 - Present)
  • Piano Faculty, Winter Festival at The Juilliard School (2022 - Present)
  • Lecturer in Piano, Stanford University (2022 - 2023)
  • Chamber Music Faculty, Crowden Chamber Music Workshop (2019 - Present)
  • Collaborative Piano Faculty, Perlman Music Program (2016 - 2019)

Honors & Awards

  • Classical Music Award Nomination for Best Performance, APRA: Australasian Performing Right Association Music Awards
  • Young Artist Award, The Gilmore
  • Young Artist Award, National Federation of Music Clubs
  • First Prize, Bösendorfer International Piano Competition
  • First Prize, Pacific International Piano Competition
  • Laureate, World Piano Competition
  • Audience Prize, Laureate, Hilton Head International Piano Competition
  • Laureate, Montreal International Piano Competition
  • Baroque Prize, Cleveland International Piano Competition

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Pianist, Ives Collective (2015 - Present)
  • Pianist, Neo-Camerata (2005 - 2014)
  • Founder, Pianist, Schumann Piano Duo (2010 - Present)
  • Board Member, Pianist, Ensemble San Francisco (2018 - Present)
  • Core Member, Pianist, Chameleon Arts Ensemble (2012 - Present)
  • Board Member, Ross McKee Foundation (2021 - Present)
  • Founder, President, Project Classical (2012 - Present)

Contact

  • Academic
    ejs@stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: Music Position: Assistant Professor - Teaching

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 3076

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

As a concert pianist by training, I cherish the traditions of classical music, where relentless practice and dedication reveal a rich tapestry of historical and artistic depth. While honoring these roots, I integrate them with scientific insights.

My approach merges the artistry of classical training with evidence-based techniques from neuroscience, psychology, biomechanics, and ergonomics. This focus on optimizing both practice and performance is not merely for musical mastery but to translate these lessons into broader life learnings.

In bridging time-honored practices with contemporary research, I actively draw from the latest findings while also contributing my own insights to the evolving body of knowledge on peak performance. My research refines training and practice methodologies, nurturing the next generation of skilled and resilient performers.

2024-25 Courses