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Born in Seattle into a musical family, cellist Julian Schwarz is already being recognized as a cellist destined to rank among the finest of the 21st century.

Mr. Schwarz made his orchestral debut at the age of 11 playing the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 with the Seattle Symphony with ...

Born in Seattle into a musical family, cellist Julian Schwarz is already being recognized as a cellist destined to rank among the finest of the 21st century.

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, Gerard Schwarz, on the podium. Since then, he has appeared with the Seattle, San Diego, Puerto Rico, Hartford, Charlotte, Columbus (OH), Sarasota, Grand Rapids and Wichita symphonies, as well as with the Louisville Orchestra, Chicago Camerata and the Symphony Silicon Valley among others.

Internationally, he made his Australian debut with the Queensland Symphony in Brisbane as well as his debut in Hong Kong at the Intimacy of Creativity Festival. He has also made two appearances with the Boca del Rio Orchestra in Veracruz, Mexico and made his debut with the Mexico City Philharmonic in May 2016. In August 2013, Mr. Schwarz was awarded first prize in the professional cello division of the inaugural Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in Hong Kong.

Equally active as a recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Schwarz has performed recitals at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Palm Springs, Washington DC and Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also appears regularly on the stage of Bargemusic in New York City playing chamber music and recitals with his regular collaborative partner, pianist Marika Bournaki, and on chamber music series such as Frankly Music in Milwaukee. He is a member of the ensemble Frisson, a nonet for strings and winds, and has his own piano trio, Mile-End Trio, with violinist Jeff Multer and Ms. Bournaki. In November 2016, he and Ms. Bournaki were awarded First Prize in the Boulder International Chamber Music Competition’s “The Art of the Duo” and in March 2017, the duo traveled to China for a ten concert recital tour.

During the 17/18 season, Julian Schwarz gave the world premiere of a new cello concerto written for him by Lowell Liebermann, which was premiered with the Toledo Symphony and had subsequent performances with four other orchestras. Additional recent and upcoming performance highlights include his debuts with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Jacksonville, Winston-Salem, Galveston, Springfield, OH, Springfield MA and Tucson symphonies; re-engagements with the Virginia and Des Moines symphonies, Symphoria in Syracuse and the Boca Symphoria in Boca Raton; and recitals in Hartford, Boulder and New York City.

No stranger to summer music festivals, Julian Schwarz has attended and performed at the Aspen, Cape Cod and Eastern festivals and was chosen to study and perform at the prestigious Verbier Festival in Switzerland. Now a member of the cello faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, he has performed the Brahms Double, the Dvorak Cello Concerto and the premiere of a concerto by Richard Danielpour, “A Prayer For Our Time,” with the festival orchestra.

Mr. Schwarz’s recordings for Naxos include the Saint-Saens No. 1 and Haydn C Major cello concertos with the Seattle Symphony, “In Memoriam” for the Music of Remembrance series, and the Samuel Jones Cello Concerto with the All Star Orchestra, founded by Gerard Schwarz. His most recent recording is the six Rossini String Quartets, which was recording in Nova Scotia in November 2017.

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 include Toby Saks, Lynn Harrell, Neal Cary and Ronald Leonard. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in New York City in May 2014 where he studied with Joel Krosnick, and his Master of Music degree, also at Juilliard, in May 2016. During the 16/17 season, he served as Mr. Krosnick’s teaching assistant. He also served as Artist-In-Residence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance and since September 2017 has been an Assistant Professor of Cello at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Virginia.

Julian Schwarz currently performs on a cello made in Naples by Gennaro Gagliano in 1743. He is a Pirastro artist and uses the “Perpetual mittel” set of cello strings exclusively.