He's been at it for 28 years (two years prior to becoming music director), and so Gerard Schwarz, the beloved conductor of the Seattle Symphony, feels it's time to move onward.
"I feel like I've helped build a great orchestra, helped expand the repertoire, helped build a great hall, helped build an audience," he said from within his office just off stage at Benaroya Hall. "After all these years, sometimes, it's good to have a little change."
A trumpet player, composer and Queen Anne resident, Schwarz will relinquish his duties as music director after this season, a season that, in his honor, will feature several famous pieces played by several of his famous friends.
Last week he conducted Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ("Songs of a Wayfarer"), featuring mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. The orchestra also performed the world premiere of Composer in Residence Samuel Jones' Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, featuring Schwarz' son, Julian.
The season, will also feature 18 new pieces of music, farewell commissions, by American composers, composed in honor of Maestro Schwarz's farewell season. Some of the big names that will join Schwarz this season include Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell.
From Sept. 23 to 26, Schwarz will launch the Wyckoff Masterworks Season, newly named in honor of Seattle arts patron Ann Wyckoff.
The program features Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto with renowned pianist Yefim Bronfman, and also includes Brahms' Symphony No. 3 in F major, Arthur Foote's concert overture Francesca da Rimini, and the world premiere performance of Joseph Schwantner's The Poet's Hour...Soliloquy for violin and strings.
When Schwartz puts down the baton, relinquishing his role as director to designate Ludovic Morlot, he'll be picking it back up again, only as a guest conductor. That means a lot of touring across the country, to Europe and Asia.
"Guest conducting is great because it's only about making music and not about making decisions," he said. "You just go in and do the music and you don't have to do any of the administrative work. It's really lovely."
Schwarz is also working on an educational TV series in New York, where he lives part time. He will also be doing a lot of composing. But perhaps most importantly, he will be spending time with his family. Now a grandfather, Schwarz last week had the entire family at his Queen Anne home. And after his rehearsal, the anticipation on his face to get to his lunch appointment with them, was obvious.
"As with most of us, the greatest moments are not on the stage but with family," Schwarz said. Schwarz is married to flutist Jody Schwarz, and has four adult children (Alysandra, Daniel, Gabriella and Julian), and two grandchildren. "What could be more wonderful in life?"[[In-content Ad]]
