Seattle Symphony's Gerard Schwarz Lists His Expiration Date

The P-I reports that Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz has announced he'll step down at the end of the 2010-11 season. What is that, 25 years as music director? Like his director-doppelganger Speight Jenkins at Seattle Opera, Schwarz arrived in the mid-'80s and built a good-enough-for-Seattle organization into a nationally noticed one, albeit with more of a brash, East coast management style that's kept the orchestra split into friends-of-Gerry and I-spit-on-your-grave factions. We used to truck Gerry around to donor events when they were building Benaroya Hall, and, man, can that guy work a crowd. (However, he also lost a pen we loaned him, so that's a demerit.) He says he'll hang around town and guest conduct--he's also done some composing which we liked quite a bit. All in all, the future looks pretty rosy for the Schwarzes.