April 1, 2025
Athens, GR 13 C
Expand search form
Blog

Speaking Soundly: The principal trumpet who made it big

Speaking Soundly: The principal trumpet who made it big

This week’s guest on David Krauss’s podcast is the conductor Gerard Schwarz, who started out as co-principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic orchestra. Schwarz, 76, went on to become transformational music director of the Seattle Symphony for 26 years, as well as leading New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival and, for five years, heading the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Schwarz talks about his parents, both doctors from Vienna, who took their kids to music as a matter of course. His mother never got over the murder of her parents in a Nazi transport to Latvia. ‘Whatever my sisters and I did,’ he says, ‘it was a better life than being killed by the Germans.’

Having achieved his dream of playing trumpet in the New York Philharmonic, ‘how could I think at the age of 28 that I could take something of my love and just put that aside and assume I would be a successful conductor? It was all stupidity.’

Listen here.

 

The post Speaking Soundly: The principal trumpet who made it big appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Mine’s a triple, but not this one

Next Article

Out of the Shadows: An evening of music by Brixton-based contemporary classical composer Robert Hugill

You might be interested in …

Bruckner cycle mourns its leader

Bruckner cycle mourns its leader

The recording of the complete Bruckner symphonies, conducted by Maestro Rémy Ballot in the Basilica Church of St Florian has been shadowed by the sudden death of Thomas Wall, one of its chief instigators. Thomas […]

Sicklist 2: Franz cancels Vienna Opera

Sicklist 2: Franz cancels Vienna Opera

Franz Welser-Möst has pulled out of the opening of the new Magic Flute, directed by Barbora Horakova, at the end of this month. A statement from Staatsoper director Bogdan Roscic reads: ‘After successful immunotherapy, unexpected […]

Netrebko is still gigging with her ex

Netrebko is still gigging with her ex

From the Bavarian press: The singer Anna Netrebko will perform with Yusif Eyvazov in the Thurn and Taxis Castle Festival in Regensburg’s St. Emmeram Castle on July 27, 2025. The programme includes Giacomo Puccini’s most […]