Lutz Schumacher, Contrebasse

On Monday 13 April 2015, one of great characters of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, double-bass player Lutz Schumacher, passed away. Lutz was one of the founder members of the COE and had been on most tours over the last 34 years. His wonderful playing, great sense of humour, warmth and profound kindness will be sorely missed, as he was a rock to many members of the COE family. According to Lutz, music-making in the COE was an almost spiritual experience and the friendship and family aspects of the Orchestra were incredibly important to him: “The most important aspect [of COE] is the musical and human qualities of this orchestra. We often have the opportunity to experience music in its spiritual dimension. I think this is what people enjoy the most and why they sometimes give up positions in other orchestras to come here and play in an atmosphere of friendship. We are very lucky to have a chairman, Peter Readman, who deeply believes in this idea of a family of friends making music together. This atmosphere has attracted conductors and soloists like Nikolaus Harnoncourt who we’ve worked with for more than two decades. That work with him and other soloists and conductors have resulted in the emergence of a stylistic awareness in the orchestra that is very difficult to find elsewhere.”

Lutz Schumacher was born in Germany. He studied music and philosophy and graduated in double bass at the academies of Cologne and Vienna. Alongside his activities with the COE, he played with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro della Scala di Milano and as principal double bass with the Radio Orchestra Lugano and Teatro Regio Torino. He was invited by Claudio Abbado to become part of the Orchestra Mozart Bologna. He also specialised in historical performance and worked with the Concentus Musicus and Il Giardino Armonico, amongst others. Lutz taught double bass at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica di Milano.