JÖRG-MICHAEL SCHWARZ, a prize winner in several international violin competitions, is one of North America’s leading Baroque violinists. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. A recipient of numerous grants and scholarships, he studied violin with Max Rostal in Germany and with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York. Early on in his career Mr. Schwarz concentrated on chamber music, studying with the Melos, Amadeus, and Juilliard Quartets, and with Felix Galimir. As soloist he has appeared with the Scottish Chamber Symphony under Yehudi Menuhin, Berne Symphony Orchestra, New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, and Heilbronn Symphony Orchestra, among others. Co-founder of the Ravel Quartet Köln (1978-81), the Orfeo Chamber Soloists (1979-82) and the Monadnock Quartet (1984-88), he was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra (1984-85) and the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra (1984-88).

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As Baroque violinist he has performed with Marie Leonhardt, Jaap Schroeder, Albert Fuller, Reinhard Goebel, the English Baroque Soloists, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Anima Eterna, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and Musica Antiqua Köln. He has also served as concertmaster of the Connecticut Early Music Festival Orchestra (1990-92), the Barockorchester Stuttgart (1992-96), Grande Bande (New York), the New York Collegium, American Bach Soloists, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.

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He has played under the batons of Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, John Eliot Gardiner, and Roger Norrington and has been a featured performer at the early music festivals of Boston, Berkeley, Utrecht, Stuttgart, Regensburg, Göttingen, Halle, Bruges, Vienna, Ambronay, and Helsinki. 

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His recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was released in 1992 on Chesky Records; he can also be heard on Channel Classics, ERATO, Sony, Smithsonian Press, Arabesque, PGM, Vox Classics, Koch International, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Hänssler Classic, Naxos, ATMA Classique, Dorian/Sono Luminus, and Bridge Records.

Mr. Schwarz has presented lecture demonstrations on the famed Stradivarius and Amati collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City and his playing can be heard on the headphones at the museum’s Musical Instruments Collection.

 

In October 2016 Mr. Schwarz made his solo début at New York’s Lincoln Center with the American Classical Orchestra in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

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Among many other interests Mr. Schwarz is an avid wine enthusiast.