South Florida Classical Review: Schwarz leads the Frost Symphony in a fiery and relentless “Rite of Spring”
Since Gerard Schwarz joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2019, he has led the Frost Symphony Orchestra in some fine performances. But the American conductor exceeded all previous efforts with a thrilling rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall.
When Stravinsky’s ballet score premiered in Paris in 1913, a riot broke out in an audience shocked by the music’s dissonance and harmonic audacity. Almost one hundred and ten years later, The Rite of Spring can still can give listeners a jolt in the best possible way. Stravinsky’s score changed the course of music and Schwarz’s reading brought out the work’s daring originality and sweeping dynamism.
South Florida Classical Review
By Lawrence Budmen
Since Gerard Schwarz joined the faculty of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2019, he has led the Frost Symphony Orchestra in some fine performances. But the American conductor exceeded all previous efforts with a thrilling rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps Saturday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall.
When Stravinsky’s ballet score premiered in Paris in 1913, a riot broke out in an audience shocked by the music’s dissonance and harmonic audacity. Almost one hundred and ten years later, The Rite of Spring can still can give listeners a jolt in the best possible way. Stravinsky’s score changed the course of music and Schwarz’s reading brought out the work’s daring originality and sweeping dynamism.
Set to a scenario of a pagan rite with a sacrifice of a young woman, the music churns with primitive rhythms. Schwarz’s crisp pacing made every change of meter meticulously clear and precise. From the opening bassoon solo, wind details were lucidly projected and the brass roared in fierce tones without overpowering the full ensemble. Schwarz drew huge sonorities and astutely calibrated dynamics from the players, elucidating the shifting moods of Stravinsky’s creation.
Read more here.
Blogcritics: Exclusive Interview: Conductor Gerard Schwarz on World Premiere of Michael Dellaira Opera ‘The Leopard’ with Frost Opera and Symphony
World-renowned conductor Gerard Schwarz has presented concert music and operas all over the world and made hundreds of recordings. Marking his 70th birthday in 2017, Naxos released a 30-CD retrospective of his half-century recording career. But neither age nor pandemic has slowed him down.
Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel
World-renowned conductor Gerard Schwarz has presented concert music and operas all over the world and made hundreds of recordings. Marking his 70th birthday in 2017, Naxos released a 30-CD retrospective of his half-century recording career. But neither age nor pandemic has slowed him down.
Read more here.
The All-Star Orchestra Wins 8th and 9th EMMY Awards
The multi-Emmy® Award-winning All-Star Orchestra received its 8th and 9th awards at the 64th Annual New York Emmy® Awards Ceremony of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Award: Special Event - Edited
The All-Star Orchestra’s “From Italy and Hungary with Love,” a program featuring Mendelssohn’s beloved “Italian” Symphony No. 4, and Kodály’s orchestral showpiece, Dances of Galánta was awarded in the category: Special Event - Edited with Gerard Schwarz as Music Director, Abib Azar as Director, Dmitriy Lipay and Sascha Lipay as Audio Producers, and Andrew Mayatskiy as Editor.
The multi-Emmy® Award-winning All-Star Orchestra received its 8th and 9th awards at the 64th Annual New York Emmy® Awards Ceremony of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Award: Special Event - Edited
The All-Star Orchestra’s “From Italy and Hungary with Love,” a program featuring Mendelssohn’s beloved “Italian” Symphony No. 4, and Kodály’s orchestral showpiece, Dances of Galánta was awarded in the category: Special Event - Edited with Gerard Schwarz as Music Director, Abib Azar as Director, Dmitriy Lipay and Sascha Lipay as Audio Producers, and Andrew Mayatskiy as Editor. Co-Producers are Gerard Schwarz and Paul Schwendener. The program is part of the acclaimed classical music series featuring top musicians from across the country performing major symphonic masterpieces and works from leading contemporary American composers. The series has been broadcast nationwide on public television since September 2013, and has won Emmy® awards in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. National broadcasts of Season Five began in July, 2020, in partnership with WNET/Thirteen, American Public Television, and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Award: Audio - Post Production
The program “From Italy and Hungary with Love,” was also awarded this year in the category Audio Post- production, with Dmitriy Lipay and Sascha Lipay as Audio Engineers/Editors.
Music Director Gerard Schwarz said, “For all of us at the All-Star Orchestra receiving these awards is confirmation of the importance of making great music accessible to all, especially in these challenging times of the pandemic. Great music brings hope and inspiration. It builds a sense of community. We are so grateful to WNET/Thirteen and to all of the remarkable public television stations in our vast country for believing in classical music.”
Maestro Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra is comprised of top players from some of the country’s greatest orchestra’s including Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, New Jersey, New York (the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Oregon, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, Utah, Washington D.C., and more. Together these musicians perform on one stage under the leadership of Maestro Schwarz who serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony, and Mozart Orchestra of New York and is Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra.
The series features classical masterpieces as well as new works from leading contemporary American composers. The series aims to expose classical music to an even broader audience while keeping the listening experience informative and accessible. In addition to performances of classical and contemporary works, the programs also feature musical excerpts, images, interviews and educational commentary by Maestro Schwarz, the All-Star Orchestra musicians, and special guests.
The All-Star Orchestra’s Music Education Academy - in partnership with the Khan Academy – was founded in 2014 to bring great classical music to millions of students (over five million students as of March 2021). Online features and lessons present unique content including award-winning HD video, and enable self-learning via the Khan Academy– the world’s leading free education website.
The New Criterion: Ending the Palm Beach season
The Palm Beach Symphony closed out its forty-seventh season on May 22 with a concert of Ravel and Brahms featuring the Georgian piano soloist Alexander Toradze. Steeped in the international Romantic tradition, Toradze approached Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, part of the composer’s foray into multi-movement orchestral works, with a sparkling combination of wit and grace, ending the introductory Allegramente movement with a raised hand and faux-serious inquiry to the audience, “Was it any good?”
The New Criterion
Paul du Quenoy
On a live concert of Ravel & Brahms at the Palm Beach Symphony.
The Palm Beach Symphony closed out its forty-seventh season on May 22 with a concert of Ravel and Brahms featuring the Georgian piano soloist Alexander Toradze. Steeped in the international Romantic tradition, Toradze approached Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, part of the composer’s foray into multi-movement orchestral works, with a sparkling combination of wit and grace, ending the introductory Allegramente movement with a raised hand and faux-serious inquiry to the audience, “Was it any good?”
Read more here.
The New Criterion: Symphony by the sea
The coalescence of art, capital, and wise public health policies that is rapidly transforming South Florida into an international cultural hub has received a great boost this spring from the Palm Beach Symphony. The orchestra’s dynamic maestro, Gerard Schwarz, has led it to new heights and placed it among the ranks of the very best American regional ensembles (an ascendancy that was sorely needed following the closing of the Florida Philharmonic in 2003). The longtime director of the Seattle Symphony and New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Schwarz moved to Florida in 2019 to become Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the director of the Frost Symphony, before assuming his post as the Palm Beach Symphony’s musical and artistic director last season.
The New Criterion
Paul du Quenoy
On a live concert by the Palm Beach Symphony.
The coalescence of art, capital, and wise public health policies that is rapidly transforming South Florida into an international cultural hub has received a great boost this spring from the Palm Beach Symphony. The orchestra’s dynamic maestro, Gerard Schwarz, has led it to new heights and placed it among the ranks of the very best American regional ensembles (an ascendancy that was sorely needed following the closing of the Florida Philharmonic in 2003). The longtime director of the Seattle Symphony and New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Schwarz moved to Florida in 2019 to become Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the director of the Frost Symphony, before assuming his post as the Palm Beach Symphony’s musical and artistic director last season. His son Julian, an accomplished cellist who joined his father as the soloist in this judiciously programmed concert, quite rightly described him to me as “the busiest conductor of the covid-19 pandemic era.”
Read more here.
South Florida Classical Review: Schwarz Opens a New Era at UM Frost with Impressive Debut
South Florida Classical Debut
Lawrence Budman
As the new director of University of Miami’s Frost Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz led the first concert of the season with much success. Lawrence Budman of the South Florida Classical Debut notes that Schwarz brought the students to a new level of playing, shining a bright light on the future of the orchestra. To read the full review, click here.
WLRN: Acclaimed Maestro Joins Frost School Of Music And Palm Beach Symphony
WLRN’s Alejandra Martinez and Chris Remington sat down with Maestro Gerard Schwarz for an interview covering his childhood, classical audiences, and technology’s influence on music.
WLRN
Alejandra Martinez and Chris Remington
Maestro Gerard Schwarz sat down for a radio interview with WLRN covering his childhood, classical audiences, and technology’s influence on music. To read and listen, click here.
National Review: A Maestro-Ambassador, Gerard Schwarz
Gerard Schwarz is an exemplary musician. He was a hotshot trumpeter — one of the best in the world. Then he became a leading conductor. For many years, he led the Seattle Symphony, and also the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He has led other institutions too. Now he is going to the Palm Beach Symphony. I joke that this is a “hardship post.”
National Review
Jay Nordlinger
Gerard Schwarz is an exemplary musician. He was a hotshot trumpeter — one of the best in the world. Then he became a leading conductor. For many years, he led the Seattle Symphony, and also the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He has led other institutions too. Now he is going to the Palm Beach Symphony. I joke that this is a “hardship post.”
In addition to being a superb player and conductor, he is an outstanding — really good — talker about music, and teacher of music. There is more than a little Bernstein in him. (He knew the late maestro and played under him in the New York Philharmonic.)
Listen to the Q&A session between Maestro Gerard Schwarz and Jay Nordlinger here.
Gramophone: Gerard Schwarz, July 2019 Cover
Benstein, Barber and buddies were terrific symphonists, but what about their lesser-known 20th-century compatriots? Gerard Schwarz flies the flag for music that deserves wider acclaim.
Gramophone
The hidden giants of American Music
Benstein, Barber and buddies were terrific symphonists, but what about their lesser-known 20th-century compatriots? Gerard Schwarz flies the flag for music that deserves wider acclaim.
Read the article covering the music of Paul Creston, William Schuman, Alan Hovhaness, David Diamond, Howard Hanson, Peter Mennin, and Walter Piston in Gramophone’s July issue available here.
Musical America: Gerard Schwarz Headed to Palm Beach
Having been appointed to the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami last month, conductor Gerard Schwarz is planting further roots into the Florida sands by accepting the post of music director of the Palm Beach Symphony. He starts next season, succeeding Ramón Tebar, who held the job for eight years.
Musical America
Nicholas Beard
Having been appointed to the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami last month, conductor Gerard Schwarz is planting further roots into the Florida sands by accepting the post of music director of the Palm Beach Symphony. He starts next season, succeeding Ramón Tebar, who held the job for eight years.
Read more here.