top of page

The Schumann Duo

As young children, Elizabeth and Sonya shared cacophonous practice time on their family’s second-hand spinet piano. Finally, their mother gave in and purchased another! The furious practicing which ensued resulted in prizes in major national and international piano competitions for both, and eventually led to a dynamic and harmonic musical and theatrical collaboration between the siblings.

 

The Schumann duo has performed in venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Red Rocks Chamber Music Festival, Musica Viva, and the Gilmore Festival, and has given workshops at the Australian National University, Music Teachers’ National Association, LexArts, and the Piano Arts Consortium.

 

Called “attractive, unique, and immensely engaging” by the Fine Arts Initiative, the siblings share a kinetic connection with their audience. A dynamic combination of storytelling and piano performance, the Schumann Duo provides an opportunity for listeners to enter the world of the composers through artistic excellence, innovative programming, and insightful narration.

 

Repertoire for narrator and piano

The Story of Babar

Enoch Arden: 

a melodrama





Façade:
an entertainment

​Carnival of the Animals:
suite of poetry and music

Peter and the Wolf



Mon Coeur Qui Bat

for actress and pianist

music by Francis Poulenc

words by Jean de Brunhoff



​music by Richard Strauss

poetry by Alfred Lord Tennyson



music by William Walton
poetry by Edith Sitwell

music by Saint Saens​
poetry by Christopher Steger



text/music ​by Sergei Prokofiev



music by Hugues Leclair

poetry by Jean-Pierre Siméon

Repertoire for two pianists

Concertino


Sonata for 4-Hands


“I Got Rhythm” Variations


Hungarian Dances


Scaramouche     

                               
Dolly suite, opus 56     

                           
Epigraphes Antiques 


Jeux D’enfants, opus 22

Dimitri Shostakovich



Francis Poulenc



George Gershwin



Johannes Brahms

Darius Milhaud      
 
Gabriel Faure   
 
Claude Debussy   

Georges Bizet

Enoch Arden, excerpt

words by Alfred Lord Tennyson
music by Richard Strauss

Recitation: Sonya Schumann

Piano: Elizabeth Schumann

Finale from Carnival of the Animals

by Camille Saint-Saëns

Elizabeth & Sonya Schumann, Piano

Photo credit: Richie Wireman

bottom of page