Jan Schumacher (*1980) is professor and Music Director at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt since 2015 and teaches conducting at the Music Academy in Darmstadt since 2019. Until 2016 he was professor for choral conducting at the College of Church Music in Rottenburg.

Having received his degree in School Music and German from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Jan went on to study Conducting with Wolfgang Schäfer at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Even as a child and young adult (musical education with the Limburg Cathedral Boyschoir and the State Youth Choir of Rhineland-Palatinate), he was fascinated with the activity of group singing, which has remained the main motivation for his manifold activities to this day.

 

 

Next to the choirs and orchestras of Frankfurt University and Darmstadt Academy Jan is as well the conductor of Camerata Musica Limburg and the Choir of TU Darmstadt. With his ensembles, he builds extensive repertoires from Gregorian chants to world premieres, from symphonic orchestra to Big Band, and vocal or electronic improvisation. Camerata Musica Limburg has won numerous 1st prizes in national and international choir competitions.

 

 

Jan teaches courses for choirs, orchestras and conductors across whole Germany and was jury member in the national choir competitons of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He is editor of various choral collections with some of the most important choral publishing houses (Helbing, Carus, Bärenreiter, Peters). 

 

 

On international level he served for festivals like America Cantat (Panama 2019), Europa Cantat (Slowenia 2021) or Choralies (2016, 2019), and giving workshops and lectures at the American Choral Directors Associtaion (National Conference 2013), the IFCM World Symposium (Argentina 2011, Barcelona 2017) or the Philippine Choral Directors Association (Manila 2019). He was Guest conductor e.g at the Chamber Choir of Europe, the Taipeh Philharmonic Choir (Mendelssohn: Elias, 2019) and the Ensemble Aleron (Philippines 2021) Jan was invited to teach conducting masterclasses in Bulgaria, Iceland, Turkey, USA, Venezuela, Argentina, China, Philippines and Iran.

 

 

From 2009 – 2018 Jan was board member, and later vice president and chair of the music commission of the European Choral Association Europa Cantat. Until now he is member of the artistic committee oft he International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Germany, and since 2019 he is appointed to be Artistic Director of the prestigious German Choir Competition.