“Conductor Gerard Schwarz, a longtime advocate for American composers, has been hired by the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music,” writes Lawrence A. Johnson in Tuesday’s (4/9) South Florida Classical Review. “Schwarz will take up his new post as distinguished professor of music, conducting and orchestral studies this fall…. Like his predecessor Thomas Sleeper, who held the same position for 25 years, Schwarz is a strong advocate of neglected music, particularly unsung 20th century music by American composers…. Schwarz plans to inaugurate an annual festival around 20th-century American music, something he said he is already planning with [Frost School of Music Dean Shelly] Berg and Robert Carnochan, conductor of the Frost Wind Ensemble…. Conductor laureate of the Seattle Symphony, Schwarz said he would also like to expand the graduate conducting program as well as foster greater interaction with the community by the Frost Symphony Orchestra…. Schwarz has been steadily increasing his profile in South Florida over recent seasons, having led concerts with the Boca Raton Symphonia and … the Frost Symphony Orchestra last October.” Schwarz led the Palm Beach Symphony on Friday, April 12 in works of Mozart and Bruckner with pianist Leon Fleisher.
Posted April 15, 2019
