Biography
Julian Schwarz
Born in Seattle into a musical family, nineteen year old cellist Julian Schwarz is already being recognized as a young musician with great talent and even greater potential.
Mr. Schwarz made his orchestral debut at the age of 11 playing the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 with the Seattle Symphony with his father, Music Director Gerard Schwarz, on the podium. Since then he has appeared as soloist with many of the Seattle area orchestras including the Bellevue Philharmonic, Philharmonia Northwest and the Port Angeles and Sammamish symphonies as well as with the Syracuse, Memphis and Greensboro (NC) symphonies. In the winter of 2010 he was one of the featured soloists on an extensive US tour with the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing 13 concerts on the East and West coasts.
Highlights of Mr. Schwarz's 10/11 season include concerto appearances with the Seattle, Columbus (OH), Virginia, Grand Rapids, Omaha and Las Cruces (NM) symphonies and recitals at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico and in Palm Springs.
Julian Schwarz has performed as a chamber musician at the Aspen, Interlochen, Eastern, California Summer and Encore music festivals. In summer 2009 he was the "Featured Young Artist" at both the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and the Cape Cod Music Festival and attended and performed at the prestigious Verbier Festival in Switzerland. He returns to the Verbier, Eastern Music and Cape Cod festivals in summer 2010 for chamber music performances.
In both 2007 and 2008 Mr. Schwarz won the highly regarded Northwest Sinfonietta Youth Concerto Competition. The resulting performances as soloist with Music Director Christophe Chagnard led to his appointment as assistant conductor under Chagnard with Seattle's Lake Union Civic Orchestra, with which he has conducted Borodin's Second Symphony and Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice at Seattle's Town Hall.
Mr. Schwarz was recently profiled in the cover story of the March/April/May issue of Teen Strings and has been featured on the acclaimed NPR radio program "From the Top." He has also recorded "In Memoriam" by Gerard Schwarz for the Music of Remembrance series on the Naxos label.
Julian Schwarz started piano lessons at the age of five and began his cello studies the following year with the late David Tonkonogui; subsequent teachers have included Toby Saks and Lynn Harrell. He attends The Colburn School in Los Angeles where he studies with Ronald Leonard.