No slowing down for Gerard Schwarz, South Florida’s busiest conductor

November 12, 2025. By Lawrence Budmen

When Gerard Schwarz was a teenage trumpet student, he dreamed of being a member of the New York Philharmonic. At age 25, his dream came true as he became co-principal trumpet of that storied ensemble, the youngest member in the orchestra’s history. 

Still, while focusing on orchestral playing and teaching (including Juilliard), Schwarz questioned whether he wanted continue doing that for the rest of his life. “I thought I could have more to say musically,” Schwarz recently recalled in an SFCR interview. The result has been an international conducting career for over 50 years that has taken him to orchestras around the world. 

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