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Schwarz’s 26-Year Seattle Legacy Au Revoir But Not Good-Bye Melinda Bargreen

hey’ve named a block of a downtown When he first came to Seattle as music Seattle thoroughfare “Gerard Schwarz advisor in 1983, Schwarz arrived to a shell- TPlace”. They’ve named Schwarz an hon- shocked orchestra and music community, fol- orary one-star general. Marvin Hamlisch has lowing the death of the Seattle Symphony’s written and performed a witty song in Music Director Rainer Miedel from cancer. Schwarz’s honor; 18 top composers have writ- The orchestra and its finances were in disar- ten short works for him to premiere; the Seat- ray; the performance space (the former Seattle tle community has penned congratulations in Opera House) was an acoustically diffuse barn several big “autograph books”; and the array of of a hall that wasn’t exactly conducive to a pre- and post-concert galas, parties, and other refined orchestral sound. Schwarz was hired to events would challenge the stamina of a lead the orchestra during the search for marathoner. Miedel’s successor, but it became immediately What a coda to Gerard Schwarz’s 26 years clear to the orchestra and the community that as Seattle Symphony music director! His long the best successor just might be Schwarz him- tenure, which officially concluded with a set of self. June concerts that included Mahler’s Sympho- “He’ll never stay in Seattle!” was the ny No. 2 (Resurrection) along with a Philip mantra of knowledgeable observers on both Glass premiere, is all the more remarkable coasts. After all, Schwarz was a New Yorker, because no one ever expected Schwarz to stay originally a trumpet phenomenon who in 1972 in Seattle for more than a short sojourn. became the New York Philharmonic’s 28 Music in Concert September/October 2011 Sig02arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:48 PM Page 29

youngest co-principal trumpet at age 25, and filed suit against the orchestra and music who left the orchestra five years later to pursue director (the suit was later dismissed, but not a conducting career. And pursue it he did, with before drawing considerable attention in the tremendous energy. At the time he came to New York Times). Two outspoken Schwarz loy- Seattle, Schwarz was the director of six organi- alists in the orchestra reported vandalism inci- zations: the Mostly Mozart Festival, the New dents. York Chamber Symphony (originally the New When Schwarz announced his decision to York “Y” Symphony), the contemporary Music leave at the end of his contract in 2011, plans Today series, New Jersey’s Waterloo Festival, were set in motion for a blockbuster final sea- the Eliot Feld Dance Company, and the Los son. Chief among the innovations was an Angeles Chamber Orchestra. unprecedented set of 18 short commissions by Nobody expected Schwarz to spend much some of the country’s finest composers, time in the Northwest corner of the country; underscoring Schwarz’s commitment to new nor did Schwarz himself. But gradually things American music: Augusta Read Thomas, changed. He married the former Jody Greitzer Joseph Schwantner, Aaron Jay Kernis, Daron (daughter of New York Philharmonic principal Hagen, Samuel Jones, David Stock, Bernard violist Sol Greitzer), a flutist of considerable Rands, Gunther Schuller, Bright Sheng, Daniel charm who became an immediate favorite in Brewbaker, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Robert Beas- the Seattle music community. The couple set- er, Chen Yi, George Tsontakis, David Schiff, tled into a condo overlooking the Seattle Richard Danielpour, Paul Schoenfield, and waterfront and the Pike Place Market, and in Philip Glass. due course they welcomed two children, Many of these curtain-raisers, including Gabriella, who now works for CNN, and Julian, the festive Zwilich work and the jazzy Schiff now an increasingly busy solo cellist. (Schwarz piece, used lots of brass as a tribute to this for- also has two children, Alysandra Lal and mer trumpeter. The longer Samuel Jones work, Daniel Schwarz, from an earlier marriage.) Reflections: Songs of Fathers and Daughters, Though Schwarz continued his globe-trotting was an effective and evocative set of vignettes ways (with music directorships as far afield as displaying Jones’s imaginative harmonic struc- Liverpool and Tokyo), somehow the New York- ture and virtuoso scoring. The last of the com- ers had become Seattleites. missions, Philip Glass’s Thanks to the trumpeter’s earlier relation- Harmonium Moun- , was in his familiar motive-oscillations ship with the Delos label, his new orchestra tain minimalist style, breaking no ground but recorded a highly praised series of discs in that entertaining the audience well. exciting new medium, the compact disc. More The finale’s big piece, Mahler’s than 140 CDs on Delos and other labels were Resurrec- to follow, with 14 Grammy nominations and a tion Symphony, demonstrated the feisty good lasting mark particularly in the repertoire of health and the resounding brass section of the 20th Century symphonists (Hanson, Piston, orchestra, as well as the conductor’s ability to Schuman, Diamond, and Hovhaness, among shape the score’s smaller-scale, more intimate others). moments. Sustained and lengthy ovations It took many years for Schwarz to get his before and after the program made it clear that orchestra out of the old Opera House (increas- the maestro had also connected powerfully ingly gridlocked with concert dates by the with his audience. Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and People who worry about how the Seattle visiting artists) and into a new concert hall. Symphony—which, like most orchestras Schwarz’s friends, philanthropists Jack and today, is struggling with a deficit and the diffi- Becky Benaroya, launched that project with a culty of fundraising in a tough economy—will $15 million gift; the result, Benaroya Hall, fare in Schwarz’s absence may be relieved to opened in 1998 to national acclaim for its discover that he won’t disappear entirely: he is acoustics and amenities. The hall, along with staying on for several weeks each season as the gradual advent of several gifted new play- “conductor laureate”. Also the artistic director ers, allowed Schwarz to raise significantly the of the Eastern Music Festival, Schwarz will quality of the orchestra. devote his considerable energies to composi- It wasn’t all a consistent hymn of praise, tion (he is currently working on a band piece however. Discord gradually grew between the for Cornell). He is also director-conductor of music director and several players who object- an educational TV-DVD series with an “All- ed initially to what they considered his high- Stars Orchestra” of the country’s best players handed hiring of John Cerminaro as principal in great concert repertoire, in eight hour-long horn, over objections of the players’ selection annual programs with many other enhance- committee. A group of increasingly vocal dissi- ments. Don’t look for any moss to grow on his dent musicians expressed displeasure later, baton. when the board voted in 2006 to renew Schwarz’s contract through 2011. One violinist American Record Guide Music in Concert 29