Honorary Committee Chair

Sergiu Schwartz’s international concert appearances have taken him to major music centers on four continents, including twenty European countries, Israel, Asia, Canada, and over forty U. S. states, as soloist with orchestras, in recitals and chamber music concerts. “Following in the footsteps of his fellow countrymen Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, he is a product of the best of European romantic interpretative style and 20th-Century American technical acuity,” states New York’s Newsday, while Le Soleil (Canada) notes that “he stands out as one of the best violinists of his generation.” Comparing him to the greatest violinists, Fanfare – The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors, writes: his “warmth of sound and insight into the music raise to the level of expression achieved by Oistrakh” and his “tonal sheen approaches Milstein’s… for those who lament the passing of the great violinists of the middle of the last century, Schwartz’s collection should provide a great sense of optimism that a younger violinist still commands such assured rhetoric and expressive resources. Heifetz, Milstein, Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, Francescatti – they all come to mind.”

Mr. Schwartz has performed in venues including the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Jerusalem Theatre, and Rome’s Academia Santa Cecilia. In solo orchestral engagements, he has performed with conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, Sergiu Comissiona, James Judd, JoAnn Falletta, Mehli Mehta, Peter Maag, Bruno Weil, Antoni Wit, and Enrique Batiz. He is a frequent guest in festivals across North America, Europe, and Asia, and he serves on the artist faculty of the Bowdoin (Maine), Summit (New York), Mozarteum (Austria), and Keshet Eilon (Israel) international music festivals. Mr. Schwartz has been featured in broadcasts for radio and TV stations, including NPR, CNN, WXEL-TV’s “Great Performances,” and the BBC.

Alongside his performing career, Sergiu Schwartz holds the position as Professor of Violin (William B. and Sue Marie Turner Distinguished Chair in Violin) at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University, and as Professor at Haute Ecole de Musique et Conservatoire de Lausanne, Switzerland. He regularly conducts master classes and lectures at international music schools, colleges, and universities. Sergiu Schwartz also serves as a juror in major international competitions, including Tchaikovsky, Sarasate, Wieniawski, Michael Hill, Mozart/Salzburg, Oistrakh, Postacchini, Szeryng, Novosibirsk, as well as Canadian National, Sphinx, Stulberg, Blount-Slawson, Washington International, and others.

Click here to read more

Professor Schwartz holds the Chair of the Honorary Committee, supporting the Foundation with ideas, guidance, and input based on decades of international experience.