VIENESS
PIANO
DUO
BIO
GRAPHY
VIENESS PIANO DUO
Learn more about Vieness and pianists Eva Schaumkell & Vijay Venkatesh.
VIENESS
PIANO DUO
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Vieness Piano Duo stands among the most electrifying and in-demand piano duos on the world stage today. Comprised of pianists Eva Schaumkell and Vijay Venkatesh, the duo is celebrated for their intuitive musical communication, technical brilliance, and powerful stage presence. Together, they create performances that are sonically seamless and emotionally transcendent.
Their deep artistic connection and seamless musical dialogue have made them in high demand at concert halls and festivals around the world. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Summer Stars Series, DaCamera Society, Trinity Concert Series, Music Guild, Le Salon de Musiques, Camerata Musica, Highlands-Cashiers Festival, Grand Piano Series, Lancaster Performing Arts Center, L'ermitage Foundation, Sarasota Artists Series, Second City Chamber Series, Tassel Performing Arts Center, Healdsburg222, Ridgecrest Chamber Music Society, Vicente Chamber Orchestra, as well as a 3-week tour of the Midwest and Germany. Highlights of past seasons include 8 performances of Carmina Burana and Carnival of the Animals with the New West Symphony under the baton of Michael Christie and reappearances at the Soka Performing Arts Center with the South Coast Symphony and conductor Barry Silverman.
In addition to their performing activities, the husband-and-wife team regularly teach masterclasses at Pacific Lutheran University, State College of Florida, Bozeman University, Irvine Valley College, and Riverside City College. Vieness is a featured artist on Tonebase.
EVA SCHAUMKELL
German pianist Eva Schaumkell is established on three continents as a brilliant soloist and collaborator praised for her “astonishing combination of depth of expression and thrilling virtuosity” (Nassauische Neue Presse). Dr. Schaumkell has established a major international presence as Gold medalist in the 2018 International James Ramos Piano Competition, the 2014 International Siegfried Weishaupt Piano Competition. She has also been awarded prizes at the Coeur d’Alene Piano Competition, Thürmer Piano Competition in Bochum, Jugend Musiziert Competition, and is a recipient of the Carl Maria von Weber Scholarship, the Deutschlandstipendium, the Thornton Music Scholarship, as well as the Drosihn Prize.
Highlights of her upcoming season includes performances as part of the Vieness Piano Duo at the Covington Recital Series, Lancaster Performing Arts Center, L’Ermitage Foundation, the Music Guild, Sarasota Artists Series, Second City Chamber Series, Summer Stars Series at Ocean Grove NJ, and a concert tour of the US Midwest through Allied Concert Services.
An active chamber musician, Schaumkell has appeared three times on Le Salon de Musiques at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and tours as the Vieness Piano Duo with her husband and pianist, Vijay Venkatesh. Together, they’ve performed over 40 recitals including with the South Coast Symphony, Vicente Chamber Orchestra recital series, InConcert Series Colorado, the Trinity Concert Series New York, Le Salon de Musiques, L’ermitage Foundation, Lompoc Recital Series, Masters in the Chapel Series, Virginia Waring Gala, and the Kultur unter'm Dach series in Germany. Online, the duo is featured on the prestigious teaching website Tonebase, where they discuss the intricacies of piano duo playing.
​A charismatic soloist, Dr. Schaumkell’s career has led to dozens of concerts throughout the US, Europe, and the Middle East. She frequents recital series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Steinway Hall London, Luton Music Club, Buckingham Palace, and at the City of London Festival. She has also appeared in recital at Stadthalle Weilburg, Kurhaus Bad Schwalbach, Coselpalais Dresden in Germany, and the MusicAlp Festival in Courchevel, France. Recent highlights include appearances at the International Summer Academy of Music in Germany, a performance of Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the London Spring Sinfonia, and Beethoven’s Concerto No.1 with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra lead by Maestro Ahmed El Saedi, at the Cairo Opera House in Egypt.
Dr. Schaumkell recently earned her Doctorate with distinction under the guidance of renowned pedagogue Daniel Pollack at the USC Thornton School of Music, where she was also a Teaching Assistant. She holds a Masters of Music degree under Winifried Apel from the Hochschule für Musik Dresden, and a Bachelors of Music under Peter Bithell from the Guildhall School in London. She has received important artistic guidance from pianists such as Fabio Bidini, Norman Krieger, Jeffrey Kahane, Cyprien Katsaris, Pascal Devoyon, Vanessa Latarche, Dmitri Alexeev, Dominique Merlet, Victor Rosenbaum, and Ivari Ilja.
Dr. Schaumkell is in high demand internationally as an Artist Teacher, and frequently gives masterclasses, adjudicates competitions, and appears for Artist Residencies in schools, universities and conservatories. She is professor of piano at Riverside City College and Irvine Valley College.
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CONNECT WITH EVA
VIJAY VENKATESH
Hailed by the Herald-Tribune for his “dazzling pianism verging on the impossible, effortless technical command and authority with a sense of poetry and refinement that belies his years,” Indian-American pianist Vijay Venkatesh has been recognized on three continents as a pianist with profound musicianship, sparkling pianism and an innate sense of partnership. Vijay, whose playing is described as “fresh and inspired,” (Cincinnati Courier) has rapidly established a major international reputation as top prizewinner in the San Jose, Seattle, Zimmerli, World Piano, and Waring International Piano Competitions. He has also been named a Davidson Fellow Laureate at the Library of Congress, USC Thornton's Discovery Scholar, Grand Prize Winner of the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Awards and featured on Performance Today® with host Fred Child, “What Makes It Great?” with host Robert Kapilow, and NPR’s “From the Top."
Highlights of Mr. Venkatesh's upcoming season include 5 performances of Rachmaninoff’s 3rd with Michael Butterman (Lancaster Symphony) and Norman Huynh (Bozeman Symphony), Mozart K. 488 with Martin Majkut (Rogue Valley Symphony), Gershwin Concerto in F with John Masko (Brockton Symphony) and Saint-Saëns Carnival of Animals and Carmina Burana for two pianos with Michael Christie (New West Symphony). Additionally, he appears this season at the Boston Court Theatre, Trinity Concert Series, Irvine Performing Arts Center, Athena Foundation for the Arts, Casa Romantica, The 222 Healdsburg, Highlands-Cashiers Music Festival, Masters in the Chapel, Music in the Mountains Festival, Ridgecrest Chamber Music Society, ProMusica San Miguel de Allende, Soka Performing Arts Center, and more.
An immersive and versatile soloist, Vijay has performed extensively across the United States and Europe as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Seattle, Vienna, Sarasota, Pasadena, Columbus, Cincinnati, Bangor, Redlands, Roanoke, LaGrange, Rogue Valley, Santa Monica, and the Brevard Music Center.
He has collaborated with preeminent conductors James Conlon, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jeffrey Kahane, Ludovic Morlot, Roger Kalia, Joseph Young, Richard Prior, Eckart Preu, Lucas Richman, Ryan Murray, Martin Majkut, Michael Repper, Carolyn Kuan, Toshi Shimada, David Wiley, Ken Lam, and more. Mr. Venkatesh appeared in recent seasons at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall with the Colburn Orchestra, Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess series, Emory Chamber Music Society, Grand Piano Series in Naples, and at the Aspen, Brevard, Banff, Highlands-Cashiers, Newport, ProMusica, Redlands Bowl, Sarasota, Vienna, and Music in the Mountains Festivals. As recipient of the inaugural Parnassus Society Prize, he performed in recital at the Soka Performing Arts Center.
Originally from California, Venkatesh earned an Artist Diploma from the Colburn School in Los Angeles with Fabio Bidini, where he was generously awarded the prestigious Amron-Sutherland Grant for Pianists. He holds additional degrees from USC Thornton and IU Jacobs School of Music, where he was a recipient of the Barbara and David Jacobs Fellowship under the tutelage of Norman Krieger and André Watts. Venkatesh previously studied with Jeffrey Kahane, Sarkis Baltaian, Menahem Pressler, and Murray Perahia. His latest recordings include the music of Lucas Richman on Albany Records and a release on Naxos dedicated to Mozart to be released in November 2025.
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