Photo: Jennifer Hui Bon Hoa

Benjamin Shwartz, conductor

Prize-winner at the 2007 Bamberg Symphony Gustav Mahler conducting competition, Benjamin Shwartz is currently Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Wattis Foundation Musical Director of the San Francisco Youth Orchestra. Appointed to his current position at the age of 25 by Michael Tilson Thomas, Benjamin Shwartz is emerging as one of the most talented and dedicated young conductors of his generation.

'Mix equal parts youthful joie de vivre with mature warmth and you have an idea of what the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra accomplished Sunday afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall. The ensemble’s sheer warmth of timbre, under Conductor Benjamin Shwartz, highlighted a program of essentially lush Romanticism, from first note to last.'

San Francisco Classical Voice

'[Benjamin Shwartz] delivered a faultlessly emotive version of Beethoven's Egmont Overture, op. 84. It is moving to see young musicians return to timeless music and give it new life. In spite of his young age, one can already perceive in Shwartz the lineage of the true "maestros." '

Miami Herald

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra