Gerard Schwarz
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Gerard Schwarz (born August 19, 1947) is an American conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 1985, having joined the organization in 1983. He was also Music Director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) and is Music Advisor to the Eastern Music Festival. His contract with the RLPO ended in September 2006.
Schwarz was born in Weehawken, New Jersey, to Austrian parents. He graduated from New York City's High School of Performing Arts and Juilliard School of Music and began his musical career as a trumpeter, performing until 1973 as principal of the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez, but also began conducting in 1966. He has been Music Director of several other organizations, most notably of New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, which he led from 1982 to 2001.
Schwarz is noted for championing American composers, past and present. The almost 100 recordings he has made with the Seattle Symphony include many American works – in particular, he has won widespread acclaim for his recordings of symphonies and other orchestral works by Alan Hovhaness and David Diamond. In 1989, he received the Ditson Conductor's Award for his commitment to the performance of American music. He has also recorded all of Mahler's symphonies and Richard Strauss's tone poems with the RLPO. Currently he is one of the most recorded conductors in the world.
Schwarz is particularly noted for his orchestra-building abilities. When he began directing the Seattle Symphony in 1983 the Symphony had 3,000 subscribers; as of 2004, it had nearly 40,000[citation needed]. He also spearheaded the effort to build Seattle Symphony's new home, Benaroya Hall.
His numerous awards include Musical America's Conductor of the Year in 1994, 11 Grammy nominations, and an Emmy nomination for his performance of Mozart's Requiem on Live from Lincoln Center[citation needed].
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| Preceded by Rainer Miedél |
Music Director, Seattle Symphony 1985– |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Petr Altrichter |
Principal Conductor, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 2001-2006 |
Succeeded by Vasily Petrenko |
