Gerard Schwarz

He graduated from New York City's High School of Performing Arts[4] and Juilliard School of Music and began his musical career as a trumpeter, performing until 1977 as co-principal of the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez.

In particular, he won acclaim for his recordings of symphonies and orchestral works by Walter Piston, Howard Hanson, William Schuman, Alan Hovhaness, and David Diamond.

[6] A portrait painting of Schwarz by artist Michele Rushworth was unveiled and installed at Benaroya Hall in 2011.

He expanded the festival's audience to the largest in its history, enhanced education and programming to include a composer in residence and three new concert series and increased collaboration with An Appalachian Summer Festival, where he is artistic partner for symphonic music programming.

He recorded all of Mahler's symphonies and Richard Strauss's tone poems with the RLPO.

As a trumpet soloist, Schwarz has recorded the concertos of Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel for Delos.