David Schwartz (June 18, 1916 – June 5, 2013) was an American violist and music instructor. Schwartz's career spanned orchestral music, chamber music, and studio recording, but he is most recognized for his chamber music performances and recordings with the

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

and

Paganini Quartet The Paganini Quartet was an American string quartet founded by cellist Robert Maas and violinist Henri Temianka in 1946. The quartet drew its name from the fact that all four of its instruments, made by Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737), had ...

Musical education

Schwartz studied viola at

Curtis Institute The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

under teachers

Louis Bailly Louis Bailly was a French-Canadian violist and music educator. He was born on 18 June 1882 in Valenciennes, France and died on 21 November 1974 in Cowansville, Quebec. Biography Bailly studied violin and viola at the Conservatoire de Paris un ...

and Max Aronoff.

Orchestral career

Schwartz joined the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...

at age 20. At age 23 he was promoted by Cleveland conductor

Artur Rodzinski Artur is a cognate to the common male given name Arthur meaning "bear-like", or “of honour”. It is believed to possibly be descended from the Roman surname Artorius or the Celtic bear-goddess Artio or more probably from the Celtic word ''ar ...

to the role of Principal Violist. He performed and toured with

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...

's All-American Youth Orchestra. During World War II, he enlisted in the Air Force and became lead violist of the

Glenn Miller Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombonist, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces ...

Army Air Force Band in 1943. After the war he performed with the

Detroit Symphony The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music ...

under

Paul Paray Paul Marie-Adolphe Charles Paray (French: ɔl paʁɛ 24 May 1886 – 10 October 1979) was a French conductor, organist and composer. After winning France's top musical award, the Prix de Rome, he fought in the First World War and was a prisone ...

, the NBC Staff Orchestra and the

NBC Symphony Orchestra The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, the parent corporation of the National Broadcasting Company especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC ...

under

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

and was principal violist of the Puerto Rico Symphony for its inaugural season under

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in New York City in the early 1960s.

Chamber music

In his 20s, Schwartz performed with the Walden String Quartet (Homer Schmitt, violin; Bernard Goodman, violin; Robert Swenson, cello) in concert hall and radio broadcast chamber music programs. Later he performed with the Cremona String Trio.Program notes from Osaka International Festival, April 1960 From 1958–1960 he toured Asia, South America and the United States as violist of the

, based out of Los Angeles. While teaching viola at Yale he joined the Yale Quartet with

Broadus Erle Broadus Erle (March 21, 1918 – April 6, 1977) was an American violinist. Born in Chicago and reared in Toronto, Erle began his violin studies at age 3, taught by his mother, Brownie Earl. (She herself was a violin student of Broadus Farmer, ...

(violin),

Yoko Matsuda Yoko may refer to: People and fictional characters * Yoko (name), a Japanese feminine given name; variants include Yōko and Yohko, including a list of people and Japanese fictional characters (for non-Japanese characters, see the Arts and ente ...

(violin), and

Aldo Parisot Aldo Simoes Parisot (September 30, 1918 – December 29, 2018) was a Brazilian-born American cellist and cello teacher. He was first a member of the Juilliard School faculty, and then went on to serve as a music professor at the Yale School of Mu ...

(cello). Their first recording was nominated in 1967 for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

. This ensemble is best known for their recordings between 1967 and 1971 of the Late Beethoven quartets. The American Record Guide considered the Yale Quartet's Grammy-nominated recording of the , for example, to be "one of the finest performances of a late Beethoven quartet ever to have been put on record." Schwartz has recorded for CRI, Kapp Records, and Vanguard Recording Society. He has also given world premiere performances of pieces by

Mel Powell Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the founding dean of the music department at the California Institute of the Arts. He served as a music educator for over ...

Arnold Franchetti Arnold Franchetti (1911–1993) was a composer born in Lucca, Italy who later emigrated to the United States. Early life As a boy, Franchetti studied composition and piano with his father, Baron Alberto Franchetti (1860–1942). Arnold Franchetti ...

, Richmonde Browne,

Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigi ...

, and

Frank Lewin Frank Lewin (March 27, 1925 – January 18, 2008) was an American composer and teacher. Biography Frank Lewin was born March 27, 1925, in Breslau, Germany. He and his family escaped from Germany in 1939, spent a year in Cuba, and came to t ...

Teaching career

Schwartz was faculty member in the Yale School of Music and Art from 1962–69. He taught numerous master classes in seminar and festival programs, including Swarthmore College (1959), Coe College (1961), Brigham Young University (1959–62 and '64), the University of Hartford (1962–64), the American String Teacher's Association String Seminar, Hartford, CT (1965), and the Experimental Instrumental Performance Clinic, Sarasota, FL (1966–68). In 1970, on the invitation of

, he moved his family West to accept a position as a full-time professor of viola at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

. He taught there for one year before embarking on a career as a studio musician.

Studio work

After leaving

Schwartz became sought after as a studio musician and was principal violist in numerous motion pictures and recordings. His film credits include

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American Epic film, epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling The Godfather (novel), 1969 novel. The film stars an ensemble cast inc ...

Jaws Jaws or Jaw can refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' ...

, E.T.,

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film, science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François ...

and

Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana ...

and he served for many years as composer/conductor

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

' principal violist. He also performed on recordings by many prominent jazz and pop musicians including

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, a ...

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

and

The Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959 as the Primettes. A premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful Amer ...

Sérgio Mendes Sérgio Santos Mendes (; 11 February 1941 – 5 September 2024) was a Brazilian musician. His career took off with worldwide hits by his band Brasil '66. He released 35 albums and was known for playing bossa nova, often mixed with funk. He ...

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of the Motown group Commodores; writing and recor ...

and

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New wave music, new wave, blues, and country music, country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Gramm ...

. He was five times voted Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and then received the Emeritus MVP award.Overture (American Federation of Musicians), vol 75 #6, October 1995 ''"David Schwartz Appointed Trustee of AFM Pension Fund"''

Professional support for musicians

During his later career as a studio musician Schwartz also became active as an officer in various organizations that support professional musicians. He served on the Board of the American Federation of Musicians and Employer's Pension Fund, was Treasurer of Curtis Alumni Association West, and served as Vice President of the Recording Musicians Association of Los Angeles.

References

External links

*
New York Times review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, David 2013 deaths 1916 births American classical violists 20th-century American classical musicians 20th-century American violists Players of the Cleveland Orchestra