Gerard Schwarz

American conductor, a former trumpet virtuoso of the first rank who resigned from the New York Philharmonic in 1975 to concentrate on conducting. Very few musicians have made the jump from instrumentalist to maestro with any degree of success; however, within a decade he became one of the busiest and most sought-after conductors in the United States. Known for his unusual combination of exuberance and precision, he seems unfailingly to elicit from his players the ability for technical innovations and revitalizing old standards. As of January 1986 he was music director of six organizations that included the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. His trumpet proficiency reflected a staggering range and versatility that he attributes to early interest in jazz, and he achieved the pinnacle of trumpet soloists in the early ‘70s when he became the only wind player to win the Ford Foundation Award for Concert Artists.

The youngest of three children of Austrian immigrants, Gerard Ralph Schwarz’s father was a surgeon and his mother a psychiatrist. Both parents were amateur pianists and lifelong music lovers. By age five, Schwarz began taking piano lessons and within a few years was winning awards from the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Griffiths Foundation of Newark. He began his trumpet studies at the age of eight, soon surpassing his instructors’ competence in the local school system. From 1958 to 1960, he attended the National Music Camp, an elite summer camp for exceptionally talented musicians in Interlochen, Michigan. He set his career goal there to be the first trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. His parents, who wanted him to focus on the piano, told him he was on his own where the trumpet was concerned, and he earned instrument and instruction money through playing club dates, shining shoes and other odd jobs.

In the early 1960s, Schwarz moved in with an aunt in Manhattan so he could enroll at the High School of Performing Arts.