Eric Chumachenco performs a wide-ranging repertoire from Bach to the present as a soloist, chamber musician, and Lied accompanist. Since 1990, he has been active as a Lied accompanist and artistic collaborator in the Department of Vocal Studies at Mozarteum University Salzburg.
Eric Chumachenco began playing the piano at an early age. During his childhood, the numerous recitals and chamber music evenings he experienced with his father Nicolas and his aunt Ana Chumachenco introduced him to the repertoire for strings and piano. He studied with Sava Savoff at the Zurich Conservatory and with Edith Picht-Axenfeld in Freiburg im Breisgau. After receiving his teaching diploma in Zurich in 1983, he continued his studies with Maria Curcio in London and graduated with Vitalij Margulis in Freiburg in 1987. Further studies led him to Christoph Lieske at Mozarteum University Salzburg, and he participated in masterclasses with Nikita Magaloff, Homero Francesch, and György Kurtág.
Eric Chumachenco was a frequent accompanist and coach in the violin studio of Sándor Végh, under whose direction he performed as a soloist with the Camerata Academica Salzburg. As a soloist, he has also appeared with the Winterthur City Orchestra (Grieg Piano Concerto), the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Mozart Piano Concerto KV 453 under Edmond de Stoutz), the Camerata Lysy (touring with Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 414 under Alberto Lysy), and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra (Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 467 under Saulius Sondeckis). Solo recitals have taken him to Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
His transcription (Schott Verlag) and CD recording (WER 6217-286) of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana were enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. In the Orff Year 1995, he performed this version on numerous occasions, including at the Munich Piano Summer. He has also appeared as a teacher and concert pianist in China (Hong Kong and Beijing) and performed at Carinthian Summer in Ossiach with Marjana Lipovšek and Benjamin Schmid. Further appearances have taken him to Paris and to the Hitzacker Music Festival, where he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 453 with the Virtuosi Saxoniae under the direction of Ludwig Güttler. In 2004 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with Wilhelm Furtwängler’s Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano.
"The renowned artist’s performance of Mozart's Concerto KV 414 was beautifully sparkling and demonstrated an extraordinary warmth of touch." (Bertrand Boesch, Sierre)
"Chumachenco is not only the outstanding interpreter of his own transcription, which is as knowledgeable as it is virtuoso, but also opens up new and fascinating perspectives on the architecture of the work, allowing us to “see” its basic aesthetic patterns […] with insights never before possible." (GP, FonoForum 4/93 on Carmina Burana)
"A pianist of a special, personal character, whose playing is characterised by exceptional sensitivity. The (…) four mazurkas, Op. 33, by Chopin conveyed wonderful poetry." (FvApell, Bad Lauterberg)
"The lightness of Chumachenco's playing, his brilliance and the subtle virtuosity which broke ground both in the cadence of the first movement and in the realisation of the concluding variation movement, seemed like pianistic manifestations of that bright, wild and extraterrestrial laughter which Hermann Hesse attributes to the composer in "Steppenwolf." (T. Janssen, Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung Feb 2004, on Chumachenco’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 453 in Hitzacker/Elbe with the Virtuosi Saxoniae under Ludwig Güttler)