The award winning music director will be the guest conductor leading the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra this weekend for two concerts called Schwarz & Copland Third.

Schwarz is noted for championing American composers, past and present. The over 100 recordings he has made with the Seattle Symphony include many American works – in particular, he has won widespread acclaim for his recordings of symphonies and other orchestral works by Alan Hovhaness and David Diamond. Among the other orchestras which Schwarz has led on his other recordings are the Czech Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de France. In 2003 he recorded two concertos by Philip Glass : the Cello Concerto (with Julian Lloyd Webber) and the Concerto for Two Timpanists (with Evelyn Glennie and Jonathan Haas with the RLPO). In 1989, he received the Ditson Conductor's Award for his commitment to the performance of American music. He has also recorded all of Mahler's symphonies and Richard Strauss' tone poems with the RLPO.

Schwarz is also noted for his success in building the strength of the orchestra; when he began directing the Seattle Symphony in 1983 it had 5,000 subscribers; as of 2008 it had 35,000. He also spearheaded the effort to build Seattle Symphony's new home, Benaroya Hall.

Schwarz wiil be making his Winnipeg debut this Friday night as he conducts the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in a program which includes Fire and Light. Composed by Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, it vividly tells the story of the Chickasaw Nation. Tate is an Oklahoma-born 2011 Emmy Award Winner dedicated to the development of Native American classical composition. Fire and Light has been acclaimed wherever performed.

To round out this inspired program will be John Williams’s heart-rending music from the film Schindler’s List and Aaron Copland’s magnificent Third Symphony - with its famous Fanfare for the Common Man, all conducted by the eminent American maestro Gerard Schwarz.