SCHWARZ, GERARD Gerard Schwarz, Music Director of Seattle Symphony since 1985, is also Principal Conductor of the Eastern Music
Festival, as well as Conductor Emeritus of New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, having served there as Music
Director from 1984 to 2001. He stepped down as Music Director of the New York Chamber Symphony in 2002,
taking the orchestra he founded in 1977 through its 25th anniversary. Maestro Schwarz served as Music Director of
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for five seasons. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Gerard Schwarz
began his conducting career in 1966. Within ten years, he was appointed Music Director of the Erick Hawkins
Dance Company, the Eliot Feld Dance Company, the Waterloo Festival and the New York Chamber Symphony, as
well as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1981 he established the Music Today contemporary music series in
New York City and served as its Music Director through 1989. Gerard Schwarz has led the Mostly Mozart Festival
Orchestra in débuts at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals, and from 1991 to 1999 he conducted the Mostly
Mozart Festival in Tokyo. From 1994 to 1999, he served as Artistic Advisor to Tokyu Bunkamura’s Orchard Hall,
conducting six programmes annually with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. He has guest-conducted major
orchestras throughout North America and Europe. In 1994 Gerard Schwarz was named Conductor of the Year by
Musical America International Directory of the performing Arts. He also has received the Ditson Conductor’s
Award from Columbia University, an honorary Doctorate of Music from the Juilliard School, and honorary
doctorates from Fairleigh Dickinson University, University of Puget Sound, Seattle University and Cornish College
of the Arts. In May 2002 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awarded him special
recognition for his efforts in championing the works of American composers and the music of our time. In April
2003 the Pacific Northwest Branch of the National Arts & Sciences gave him its first “IMPACT” lifetime
achievement award. He was also named an Honorary Fellow at John Moores University, Liverpool. In 2004 he was
appointed to the NEA’s National Council on the Arts.
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