Professor Timothy Schwarz plays his violin in concert at the Boyd Recital Hall. Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Glassboro, NJ. (Staff Writer / Kacie Scibilia)
Associate Professor and Head of Strings Timothy Schwarz performed as the featured musician, presenting a program of string music, something he has done for nearly his entire life.
On Wednesday, Sept. 10, the seasoned violinist played in tandem with a Curtis Institute pianist, Thomas Weaver.
The pair began with a sonata written by the little-known English composer, Ethel Smyth. Initially, Smyth was never well-received because she was a woman,
It was about that time that Schwarz’s dedication shone through. Passionately slow to frenetically fast, Schwarz’s fingers glided up and down the violin with gusto. There may be a good reason for that: he was something of a prodigy.
“I started when I was four. I actually won my first competition at six,” said Schwarz.
In fact, Schwarz debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra before his age had even entered double digits. However, he’s not the first professional violinist in his family tree.
“There are a lot of violinists in my family, so it wasn’t that unusual for my family to start young,” said Schwarz.
However, it goes deeper than one might think.
“It’s pretty much on my mom’s side. My maternal grandfather was a violinist, his daughter, my aunt, was a violinist…her husband’s also a violinist, her daughter…my sister was a violinist,” said Schwarz. “I always joke that it’s my longest-lasting relationship.”
Though musicians adore their respective instruments, the truth is that, though that is likely true, behind the scenes, it’s far more complicated.
“It’s true, you know, when you’ve been doing something forever, there are ups and there are downs; I mean there’s periods when you love it, periods when you don’t,” said Schwarz. “I think the real misconception that people have of musicians is that we just wake up every day in a state of bliss where we enter this starry thing where we just do what we love, and yes, of course I love it but…just like any marriage or child parent relationship, of course you love it and you want to be in it, but there are days it just drives you insane.”
Schwarz’s companion on stage, Weaver, is an 11-year faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music. This isn’t the first time the duo has taken stage center, and when they played together last Wednesday.
“We’ve played together before, though. We’re used to playing with each other,” said Weaver.
Weaver is off to Tennessee soon for another performance, and Schwarz is set to perform with one of his three prized violins again on Sept. 25 in Boyd Hall at 7:30 p.m. As to whether they’ll ever play together again?
“Absolutely,” said Weaver. “I’m surprised we don’t have another thing on the calendar right now, actually.”
Schwarz and Weaver weren’t the only people having a good time that night. Junior Kathleen Rodriguez, a music performance major with a focus on violin, shared her thoughts on her professor and his performance.
“He’s actually one of my most favorite private teachers I’ve ever had—and I’m not just saying this because I’m here right now,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez further elaborated, making her point in no uncertain terms.
“The way he teaches and the way he tries to understand from like my standpoint how it would be best for me to learn each concept or each skill or each technique or even, like, something as simple as [the fact that] he’s so tall and I’m so much shorter than him, he tries to think like ‘okay, how’s a way I can explain this so that it’s going to work for her smaller hands or her smaller arms?’ He’s a really good teacher,” said Rodriguez.
As for the performance, her overwhelming opinion was that it was a hit.
“I thought it was a really great performance, and I really liked the diverse repertoire, and it’s just really great to see my own teacher perform, to see him use the things he’s taught me in lessons and ensembles and stuff, it was really great,” said Rodriguez.
The two musicians, one of whom is Rowan University’s very own, forged ahead with the program with only a very brief intermission. Before anyone but the musicians knew it, the concert concluded with Felix Mendelssohn’s “Concerto in E minor, Op. 64,” ending with the final movement, marked “Allegro molto vivace.”
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