Julian Schwarz (born January 18, 1991) is an American cellist of Austrian descent who graduated from

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

. Schwarz is currently on the cello faculty of Eastern Music Festival and as of August 2017, the assistant professor of cello at Shenendoah Conservatory. He won the 2013 inaugural Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and the 2016 Boulder International Chamber Music Competition's "The Art of Duo" with pianist Marika Bournaki, to whom he is married.

Background

Schwarz was born in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

to a musical family, most notably his father, the conductor Gerard Schwarz, and grandfather, former principal

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

of the New York Philharmonic, Sol Greitzer. He is one of ten family members to attend Juilliard. Schwarz began piano lessons at the age of 5 and cello lessons at 6 with the late David Tonkonogui. At 11 years old, he made his orchestral debut with the Seattle Symphony playing Saint-Saëns's Cello Concerto No. 1 with his father, Gerard Schwarz, conducting. At 18 years old, Schwarz was featured on the cover of the March/April/May 2009 issue of Teen Strings Magazine. After graduating from Lakeside High School and the Academy of Music Northwest in Seattle, Schwarz attended the

earning his

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in May 2014. He went on to earn his Master of Music degree from Juilliard in May 2016. His teacher was

Joel Krosnick Joel Krosnick (born 1941, New Haven, Connecticut) is an American cellist who has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the world for over 40 years. As a member of the Juilliard String Quartet from 1974 to 2016, he ...

. Schwarz's past teachers include

Toby Saks Toby Saks (January 8, 1942 – August 1, 2013) was an American cellist, the founder of the Seattle Chamber Music Society and a member of the New York Philharmonic. Music history Born in New York City to an immigrant family, Saks began music less ...

Lynn Harrell Lynn Harrell (January 30, 1944 – April 27, 2020) was an American classical cellist. Known for the "penetrating richness" of his sound, Harrell performed internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with major orchestras o ...

, Neal Cary, and

Ronald Leonard Ronald Leonard is an American cellist. He has had a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, principal cellist and teacher. He is currently on the faculties of the USC Thornton School of Music and the Colburn School. He was a winner of ...

Career

Schwarz is active in the music community as a solo cellist, conductor, chamber musician, and pedagogue. He is also an active contributor to the Strings Magazine Artist Blog.

Cello

Schwarz is a cello guest artist with many symphonies across

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

including

Des Moines Symphony The Des Moines Symphony (DMSO) is a United States symphony orchestra based in Des Moines, Iowa. The current conductor is Joseph Giunta. Established in 1937 as the Des Moines Civic Orchestra, the orchestra performs both Masterworks and Pops concer ...

, Seattle Symphony, West Virginia Symphony,

San Antonio Symphony The San Antonio Symphony was a full-time professional symphony orchestra based in San Antonio, Texas. Its season ran from late September to early June. Sebastian Lang-Lessing, its music director from 2010 to 2020, was the last to serve in that ca ...

, and San Diego Symphony, as well as across the world including Queensland, Australia with the

Queensland Symphony Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, the ...

at the Intimacy of Creativity Festival, and Boca del Rio, Mexico with the Boca del Rio Orchestra. Schwarz has gone on extensive tours including a 15-concert, United States tour with the Moscow State Radio Symphony and a 10-city China tour in March 2017 with pianist, Marika Bournaki. Schwarz and Bournaki are also regular performers at

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Bargemusic Bargemusic, formally known as ''Bargemusic, Ltd.'' is a classical music venue and cultural icon in Brooklyn. Founded in 1977, it is housed on a converted coffee barge moored at Fulton Ferry Landing on the East River near the Brooklyn Bridge. Hi ...

. Schwarz performs in festivals across North America and Europe including the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Cape Cod Music Festival, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. Schwarz is a faculty member of several festivals and music schools including the cello faculty at Eastern Music Festival, teaching assistant to

at The Juilliard School, and assistant professor of cello at Shenendoah Conservatory. He has been the artist-in-residence at the pianoSonoma Festival since 2012 and the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in

Nova Scotia, Canada Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Engl ...

since 2015. Schwarz was featured in a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

special with the

All-Star Orchestra All-Star Orchestra is an orchestral music project created by Gerard Schwarz, former music director and conductor laureate of Seattle Symphony. It is a television and DVD project, filmed by 18 high definition video cameras without an audience for ...

performing Samuel Jones's cello concerto, which was written specifically for him. The initial broadcast of the program was in October 2013 and it was also later released as a DVD on Naxos. Schwarz has also premiered works by many other composers including Richard Danielpour, Dobrinka Tabakova, and

Marlos Nobre Marlos Nobre (born February 18, 1939 in Recife, Pernambuco) Béhague, Gerard: 'Nobre, Marlos', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 23 June 2007) is a Brazilian composer. He has received commissions from numerous institutions, including the M ...

. Schwarz has appeared on radio features across America including NPR's From the Top, WXXI in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

, and Classical King FM 98.1 in Seattle, Washington. Schwarz currently plays a cello made in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Gennaro Gagliano Gagliano is the name of a famous family of Italian luthiers from Naples, dating back to the early 18th century. The Gagliano dynasty – particularly Alessandro, Nicolò I and Gennaro – are considered the high point of Neapolitan violin making. ...

in 1743.

Conducting

Schwarz began conducting in a professional capacity in 2007 as the assistant conductor of the Lake Union Civic Orchestra under Christophe Chagnard until 2009. He studied conducting privately with maestro Jorge Mester from 2014 to 2016.

Chamber Ensemble

Schwarz is currently a member of the Frisson Ensemble, the Mile-End Trio, and the New York Classical Players and has performed on chamber series including the pianoSonoma Festival, Hammond Performing Arts Series, and Frankly Music Chamber Series.

Awards

Discography

References

External links

*
CM Artists page for Julian Schwarz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarz, Julian Juilliard School alumni American classical cellists American cellists American child classical musicians American people of Austrian descent Musicians from Washington (state) Musicians from Seattle 1991 births Living people American contemporary classical music performers