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.
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.
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 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: 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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.