Interview with pianist Kai Schumacher on minimalism and the inspiration and power of composer Julius Eastman

Kai Schumacher delights in pushing the boundaries between classical and contemporary music while avoiding the clichés of "c rossover" music. Kai studied at the renowned Folkwang University Essen with Prof. Till Engel, passing his "Konzertexamen" with distinction in 2009.

Since then, he experiments and combines incompatible elements with surprising results. This May, Kai and three other pianists  Patricia Martin, Mirela Zhulali, Benedikt ter Braak, got together to perform music by Julius Eastman, who’s music has lost none of its unorthodoxy, and power.  Born in 1940, the composer broke with convention time and time again. A gay African-American, he was not afraid to speak of his roots and his sexuality. At the time of his death he was homeless and his music completely overlooked, yet today he is considered a cornerstone of minimalist music. 

Kai your greatest inspirations or influences?

The first musical influence I can remember was Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. As a little kid I would be walking around our living room table and singing along to the lyrics without really understanding a single word. I started playing the piano when I was five years old and I was totally into classical music as a child. Then Grunge, Heavy Metal and Punk came along as a teenager, which made me realize that being a rock star could be much more fun than being a classical pianist.

But during my classical piano studies there was a piece that totally changed my view on so-called contemporary classical music: „The People United Will Never Be Defeated!“ by Frederic Rzewski. This kind of eclectic style with a strong political attitude aroused my interest in the piano music of the 20th century. As a performer I started to focus on American avant garde composers like George Antheil, John Cage or George Crumb, but also on the minimal music guys such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams. So I think that my personal style as a composer is based on all of those influences, mixed up with a strong rhythmical flow that almost reminds you of electronic music.

What do you think, what are the biggest challenges of the music industry today?

I see a great risk in the, let's call it “Spotify mentality”. Music becomes a cheap commodity, available every time and everywhere for a bunch of pennies. The big streaming platforms are playing a dangerous game, and unfortunately, the artists are forced to join otherwise they´ll disappear from the scene. I´m afraid the audience may get used to this capitalistic system that is filling the CEO’s pockets but exploiting the artists.

I'd love to hear a bit more about Julius Eastman's compositional style and why have you chosen his pieces for this project – could you tell me more, please?

As a big fan of minimal music, the name Julius Eastman popped up here and there in my bubble, but it took me some time to take a closer look at his work. It was not only the music that fascinated me but also his whole biography; his uncompromising struggle for artistic integrity and his political activism. Then I found out that Patricia Martin, who  teaches at the same university I do, did the first performance of the two pieces „Gay Guerrilla“ and „Evil Nigger“ 40 years ago together with Julius Eastman himself! That made me absolutely want to play a concert of Eastman’s music with her one day. We finally made it happen at this year’s Moers Festival with our friends and marvelous pianists Mirela Zhulali and Benedikt ter Braak.

Eastman´s compositional style is what he calls the „organic principle“: put simply, each new section of the work contains all the information from the previous sections but also adds a new aspect to them. This information, in the form of patterns, starts out from the smallest possible element, that of a single note, stoically repeated over and over again, gradually producing a drone-like soundscape from the chords and textures. Eastman gives the players almost complete freedom to shape these works. Instead of confining them to the rigid straitjacket of bar units the music follows a loose time axis of minutes and seconds. And instead of a fully notated score, the performers are confronted with an array of patterns to play as their intuition dictates. Every performance of these two works, then, is a kind of unique snapshot bordering on improvisation.

What about the visual aspect of your work? How important are visuals for your performance as a pianist, but also as a composer?

For me, the importance of visuals always depends on set and setting. I did a couple of planetarium shows with my albums “Insomnia“ and “Beauty in Simplicity“ where music and visuals were equally important. For these concerts I worked with full-dome projections on almost 400 square meters which were produced especially for this occasion. Of course, this kind of visual concept wouldn't work in a regular concert hall or in a club. But for my current live shows I follow the thought of “less is more“. There are no electronics on stage, just me, the grand piano and some preparations. I wanted the whole setting to be very pure, some discreet light without any visual frills.  

What would be a dream project for you? 

I’m very thankful that during this strange year of 2020 two heartfelt projects of mine came together. Not only our Eastman album, but also a Schubert project I'm working on with German singer/songwriter Gisbert zu Knyphausen for almost two years now. We put some of the Schubert songs from “Winterreise“ and “Schwanengesang“ in a new shape, re-composing them for a chamber ensemble of piano, acoustic and electric guitar, trombone, double-bass, drums and string quartet and scraping off the artificial pathos of artistic singing. And because the corona lockdown crushed our live premiere in March, I'm really looking forward to our concerts coming up in September!

Thank you Kai for this wonderful music and interview.