Gerard Schwarz

Gerard Schwarz serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra and the Eastern Music Festival and Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony. A renowned interpreter of 19th-century German, Austrian, and Russian repertoire in addition to contemporary American composers, Schwarz recently completed his final season as music director of the Seattle Symphony after an acclaimed 26 years. His previous positions as Music Director include New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the New York Chamber Symphony. As a guest conductor he has worked with many of the world’s finest orchestras and opera companies. A prolific recording artist, Schwarz’s total discography numbers more than 350 recordings on more than 11 labels, making him the most recorded American conductor today. His discography showcases collaborations with the Seattle Symphony, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and L’Orchestre National de France, among others. His pioneering cycles of American symphonists have received high critical praise, as have his acclaimed series of Stravinsky ballets, symphony cycles of Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich, and great orchestral works of the Classical, Romantic and Modern eras. Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades including two Emmy Awards, 13 GRAMMY® nominations, six ASCAP Awards and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America, and has received numerous honorary doctorates.