News
|
July 31, 2023
|
Eastern Music Festival Signs New Contract With Acclaimed Music Director Gerard Schwarz
Eastern Music Festival (EMF), a nationally recognized music festival and summer educational program based in the heart of North Carolina, announces a new three-year contract with music director Gerard Schwarz, which will secure his role with the festival through the 2026 season. Mr. Schwarz just completed his 18th season at EMF, where he is known for his passionate conducting, inspired teaching, broad programming, and dynamic engagement with the local community as well as young artists who attend the summer festival. “We are delighted that our collaboration with Gerard Schwarz will continue,” said Melanie Tuttle, EMF Board Chair. “He brings so much to our festival every summer — music that is both energizing and thoughtful and a genuine love for our community here in Greensboro. Schwarz is an integral part of why our festival is so widely and highly regarded. He attracts and works with outstanding students, acclaimed faculty, and wonderful guest artists. The Board of Directors faced a very easy decision to renew our relationship with Jerry. We look forward to the coming seasons of magical music-making at EMF.” Read more here. |
|
March 15, 2023
|
Maestro Schwarz Gifts Music Collection to Frost School of Music
During his nearly five-decade conducting career, Gerard Schwarz has amassed a large, artistically significant collection of printed music, all bearing his performance notations. Now, he has given that repertoire to the Frost School of Music for the benefit of future generations of music students and scholars. He joined the Frost School faculty in 2019, attracted by Berg’s vision for the school, and became the inaugural holder of the Schwarz-Benaroya Endowed Chair in Conducting and Orchestral Activities in 2021. Under his tutelage, the Frost Symphony Orchestra has grown immensely in stature in the four years he has been its music director. At the fall 2021 commencement, Schwarz received the President’s Medal from President Julio Frenk, in recognition of, in Frenk’s words, “a lifetime of bringing extraordinary music to the world.” Learn more here. |
|
March 14, 2023
|
World Premiere with Palm Beach Symphony
Palm Beach Symphony presents the world-premiere of “Sojourn: Reflections on Thoreau,” a work commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Schwantner, in its Masterworks concert featuring acclaimed pianist Misha Dichter led by Music Director Gerard Schwarz. The world premiere is the first of five works the Palm Beach Symphony has commissioned from American composers in celebration of its upcoming 50th Anniversary Season. This historic concert’s program includes Dichter performing Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F” followed by the Symphony performing Webern’s “Adagio,” in an arrangement by Maestro Schwarz and Stravinsky’s “The Firebird.” Read the glowing review of the new work, with its "rich orchestral palette," by South Florida Classical Review here. |
|
March 11-19, 2023
|
Paul Moravec – The Shining
Maestro Schwarz leads the Lyric Opera Kansas City in Paul Moravec’s powerful opera, The Shining. Read the Bachtrack review here. |
|
March 1, 2023
|
PBS Releases The Shoebird by Sam Jones
South Florida PBS televises Palm Beach Symphony’s production of “Eudora’s Fable: The Shoe Bird,” an adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty’s only children’s book, “The Shoe Bird.” Maestro Gerard Schwarz leads the orchestra. See it on PBS here and more information on Palm Beach Symphony's website here. |