Eric Schwartz
About
Eric Schwartz has studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York University, and both the Interlochen and Aspen Summer Music Festivals. Past teachers have included Margaret Brouwer, Donald Erb, George Tsontakis, and Randy Woolf. Primarily interested in a synthesis of musical archetypes, Schwartz is always at work on a variety of genre bending projects. Formative influences include an amalgamation of the glam metal of the late 80’s, and the baroque intellectualism of Arnold Schoenberg. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, focusing on Best Practices in Music Pedagogy for Pre-Professional Dancers.
His music has been performed on five continents, at venues ranging from Merkin Concert Hall in NYC and the BMW Edge Theatre in Melbourne, Australia to universities, coffee shops, gas stations, and bars of all shapes and sizes. He has received awards and grants from Meet the Composer, ASCAP, The Society for New Music, The Puffin Foundation, The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and The Ohio Federation of College Music Clubs.
Schwartz has served on the faculties of New York University, Hunter College, the Lucy Moses Music School, Wake Forest University, Davidson County Community College, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he serves as Music Director for the School of Dance. He is the principal composer/curator for the Winston-Salem, NC based experimental music group Blue Mountain Forecast. He was formerly a Resident Composer for the Los Angeles based Tonoi contemporary music ensemble, the Minnesota based Renegade Ensemble, and NYC’s Vox Novus. His debut CD 24 Ways of Looking at a Piano, named one of the top classical CDs of 2005 by All Music Guide, is available from Centaur Records. His second solo album, OYOU is available from CD Baby. His music is also available on Signum Classics, Capstone Records, Trace Label, and a host of others, and is published by Murphy Music Press and Lovebird Music .
Schwartz, his wife, his two daughters, their two cats, and one giant, goofy dog are all currently living in lovely Winston-Salem, NC.
To my mind, the most important thing to me is that the student enjoy the learning experience. Improvement will come when the learning is fun! I am definitely always interested in going out of my way to be as warm, personable, and accesible as possible when teaching.
I hold a BM and MA in music composition and am in the final stages of working towards a PhD in Music Education. I am a member of ASCAP, Phi Kappa Phi, and The International Guild of Musicians in Dance.
I'm currently nearing the end of a PhD program in Music Education, but while I have many "tools of the trade" when it comes to teaching, I don't subscribe to any one approach/method. There are many ways up the moment. This applies to texts as well. What is the student interested in? That will determine what books (method or otherwise0 I might suggest.