He is a trumpeter and orchestral conductor born in Weehawken, New Jersey to Austrian parents who studied at the High School of Performing Arts in New York and the Juilliard School.
After his studies he became a trumpeter with the American Brass Quintet and by 1973 had become a principal trumpeter for the New York Philharmonic.
From 1966 he was also conducting and has been musical advisor to the Eastern Music Festival and music director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival and several others as well as currently with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, who he has been with since 1985. He is known as being a champion of 20th century and American composers and has been awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award, Musical America’s Conductor of the Year in 1994, 11 Grammy nominations and an Emmy nomination.
He has made nearly 100 recordings with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and alongside his works with other orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the English and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, he is now regarded as one of the most recorded directors in the world.
The block around the home of the Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, was named Gerard Schwarz Place in 2011.
Seattle Symphony Orchestra recordings
Rameau Remembered for Flute and Orchestra
Artek 0004 (CD: Hugh Aitken: Aspen Concerto, Rameau Remembered, In Praise of Ockeghem)
Conductor – Gerard Schwarz
Flute – Scott Goff
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