Gerard Schwarz, who has led the Seattle Symphony Orchestra during its rise to national prominence as well as periods of extraordinary tumult, said on Wednesday that he would step down as music director when his contract expires in 2011.
Gerard Schwarz, 61, music director of the Seattle Symphony, says he will leave in 2011, after what will be 26 years.
By then Mr. Schwarz, 61, will have been in the job for 26 seasons, a remarkably long tenure in an age of jet-set conductors and one that harks back to the years of iron-baton maestros who seemed to serve for life.
In an interview, Mr. Schwarz said he wanted to ride out on a high. “I’m at the top,” he said. “The orchestra sounds great. The audience is huge, supportive, a phenomenal community. We balanced the budget again for a second year running. We’re making records.
“If you’re going to go, this is the time to go, when you’re on track.”
He also said he was happy to shed the “huge administrative responsibilities” of music director and focus more on music-making. The orchestra said it would name him conductor laureate and guarantee him several weeks of concerts a year. He said he had no other engagements planned.
Mr. Schwarz, a native of Weehawken, N.J., and graduate of Juilliard, became music adviser of the symphony in 1983 and music director in 1985. The orchestra has acquired national standing during his tenure.
It performed at Carnegie Hall, released scores of recordings, garnered Grammy nominations and acquired a loyal base of subscribers and patrons. Mr. Schwarz was also instrumental in the building of the orchestra’s acoustically prized home, Benaroya Hall. He said it would be a “fitting time” to leave after the hall celebrates its 10th anniversary this season.
Mr. Schwarz was also considered a skilled fund-raiser. In fact, the orchestra is initiating a three-year endowment drive to coincide with his final period in the job. The goal, according to the board chairwoman, Susan Hutchison, is to build the endowment to $100 million. It now stands at $30 million, considered extremely low for an orchestra of its size, with an annual budget of $22 million.
Despite his successes, Mr. Schwarz was also the subject of complaints by some board members and many players, who criticized his musicianship and what they called a harsh, vindictive nature, portrayals that Mr. Schwarz has steadfastly rebutted over the years. Some of his critics in the orchestra welcomed the news on Wednesday.
“I’m ecstatic,” John Weller, a violinist, said minutes after Mr. Schwarz made the announcement to the players at the end of a recording session. “I’m on top of a cloud right now.”
“There is a God,” he added, saying that it felt like a “crushing burden” had been lifted.
Mr. Schwarz and orchestra officials asserted that the criticism played no part in his decision..
“There are those musicians who dislike their leader in any orchestra in the world,” Mr. Schwarz said. “That’s just the way it is.” He acknowledged that it was natural that some members would be happy with his departure.
Mr. Schwarz said he began thinking seriously about leaving at the end of last season and told Ms. Hutchison last month. Orchestra officials said that the decision was not a surprise.
“This is something which has been coming for a while,” said Thomas Philion, the executive director. “The timing and all of that was something very much in Gerry’s court.” He said a search would begin for a successor.
Mr. Schwarz signed his latest contract, to last through the 2010-11 season, in 2006. At the time, he denied a report that the board had agreed to the contract on condition that it be his last. “In three years’ time,” he then told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “we will all decide whether I have overstayed my welcome.”
But the signing set off a storm of internal dissent among many orchestra members who had long chafed at his authority.
The players’ leadership committee carried out a survey of the musicians that amounted to a resounding vote of no confidence in Mr. Schwarz. They voted 61-8 in favor of new artistic leadership, and 61-12 for the formation of a search committee. Orchestra management quashed the survey’s release, but the results were published in an article last December in The New York Times outlining the years of turmoil at the symphony, including two lawsuits filed against Mr. Schwarz that were ultimately dismissed. The survey included comments favorable to Mr. Schwarz but others that were deeply critical.
In another bit of turmoil that followed the contract extension, Mr. Schwarz’s close friend and ally, the principal horn player, John Cerminaro, said he was a victim of vandalism and threats. Critics of Mr. Schwarz suggested that the report was false and designed to discredit them.
Mr. Schwarz was a young trumpeter in the New York Philharmonic with Mr. Cerminaro in the 1970s. He left in 1977 to conduct, serving most notably as music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival from 1984 to 2001. He parted company with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006 after friction with the musicians there.
