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GREENSBORO — His larger-than-life photograph graces banners that welcome audiences to the Eastern Music Festival at Guilford College.

He's the maestro often onstage in Guilford's Dana Auditorium, leading EMF faculty orchestra concerts with famed guest artists such as pianist Peter Ser- kin and violinist Sarah Chang.

He works with student musicians, too, in rehearsals and performances.

Offstage, he can be spotted in the audience, the official eyes and ears of the annual summer music festival.

Gerard Schwarz is everywhere at EMF. That's his job.

At 61, this internationally renowned Seattle Symphony conductor also is music director of EMF, the local nonprofit organization that has trained young musicians and entertained the public for 48 summers.

Where there is a classical concert -- every night for five weeks -- there is Schwarz.

"I am not there as a critic," Schwarz says about blending into the audience.

"I am trying to see how it's working for the audience, how it's working for the students.

"It's mostly to absorb the music and be part of it and to show support for everyone playing."

Sometimes, he even seems to be in two places at once.

On this night, Jody Schwarz is the family chauffeur, driving her husband and daughter Gabriella from Guilford College to High Point University.

EMF performs just one concert each summer in High Point, and Schwarz will welcome the full house at Hayworth Fine Arts Center.

He's onstage at 7:30 p.m., describing the evening's performers and composers. As the music starts, he's on his way back to Greensboro for an 8 p.m. chamber music concert at UNCG.

He wants to hear EMF faculty and composer-in-residence Bright Sheng perform there, and he likes what he hears. He greets musicians with enthusiastic embraces, handshakes and compliments.

"That was great!" "Wonderful performance!"

Such enthusiasm, energy, talent and commitment have won Schwarz praise and applause.

"I have never seen him when he wasn't exuberant about what he is doing," says EMF executive director Stephanie Cordick, who runs the administrative side.

Among his accomplishments this summer:

* Spending more time working with the two student orchestras, assisting their main conductor, Jose-Luis Novo.

* Giving students more opportunities to perform in concert with faculty.

* Bringing in composer-in-residence Bright Sheng, whom Schwarz calls "one of the greatest living composers," to conduct and perform his works.

* Adding three concerts at a new downtown venue, First Presbyterian Church.

To honor his contributions to classical music in Greensboro, Mayor Yvonne Johnson presented him a key to the city at a Saturday night concert.

Each summer since 2005, Schwarz has played a growing role at EMF, 2,300 miles from his Seattle home.

In late 2004, then-EMF president Tom Philion hired Schwarz as music adviser, then as principal conductor.

The move was designed to build the national stature of the festival started by Sheldon Morgenstern to provide intense classical training for young musicians from around the globe.

After Philion left in 2007 to become Seattle Symphony's executive director, EMF's board appointed Schwarz as music director through 2011.

Schwarz brings a lengthy list of impressive credentials:

* A former trumpet player with 30-plus years of conducting experience.

* Twenty-six years of leading the Seattle Symphony to national prominence.

* Two decades as director of New York's Mostly Mozart Festival.

* Founder of New York's Music Today series that championed new American music.

* Guest-conducting orchestras around the world.

* Thirteen Grammy nominations for recordings with the Seattle Symphony.

* Two Emmy Awards.

* Raising millions of dollars with his wife for a new Seattle concert hall.

"For us to bring to this community someone at the level of Jerry Schwarz, one of the top conductors in the United States, was just phenomenal," board co-chairman Sam LeBauer says.

In late June, Gerard and Jody Schwarz packed up their lives, son and daughter in Seattle to move to guest quarters at Guilford College for five weeks.

"Here we are in this beautiful place, having a beautiful summer, with music on this kind of level," Schwarz says, relaxing briefly on the patio. "It doesn't get much better than this."

He begins each day quietly on the patio, drinking coffee and studying scores for his next concert.

But it's no summer vacation.

His conducting role calls for several days of rehearsing and leading concerts for eight to nine hours, from 9 a.m. to after 10 p.m.

Sample a few days of his schedule:

Wednesday, July 8: From 9 a.m. to noon, he rehearses with a student orchestra. From 1 to 3:30 p.m., he rehearses with the faculty orchestra. He leads a brief rehearsal for an 8 p.m. concert, then leads the concert.

Thursday, July 9: He leads the same morning and afternoon rehearsals, then conducts an 8 p.m. student orchestra concert.

Friday, July 10: He listens to Sarah Chang play Saturday's concert piece so he can prepare the faculty orchestra, then leads the orchestra rehearsal until 12:30 p.m. He plays tennis with son Julian, gives a press interview, dines with the family, then attends an 8 p.m. student concert.

Saturday, July 11: He rehearses with Chang and the orchestra until 12:30 p.m. He takes a break before leading the 8 p.m. concert. It ends at 10:15 p.m., and he and his wife head to a reception.

Sunday, July 12: He bids farewell to cellist Julian, leaving for the Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland. He helps to judge EMF's student concerto competition. Then he, his wife and daughter drive to Boone, where Chang and the orchestra will repeat Saturday's concert. They return home after midnight.

"He really has the most energy of virtually anybody I know," says Randall Ellis, who plays principal oboe in the faculty orchestra.

"I said, 'Jerry, how are you doing this?' " Ellis says.

"He said, 'Well, my tennis game is suffering.' "

The most taxing part is not waving his arms for hours, but the mental focus required, Schwarz says.

"You have to be thinking about the music at every moment," he says.

"The physical part is not as tricky. I don't have any elbow, wrist, shoulder or arm problems, and I am lucky because a lot of conductors do. But mentally, you have to be really into it at every second. If you're not, everybody notices."

To unwind and exercise, Schwarz fits in several sessions with a tennis pro at Greensboro Country Club.

He also has his preconcert ritual.

He takes a late-afternoon nap for 30 to 45 minutes, then rises at 5:30 p.m. as if it's a new day.

He drinks coffee, eats chicken or fish for protein, studies the score "and hopefully will be in a perfect mental state for the start of the concert," he says.

As EMF music director, much of Schwarz's job takes place offstage, long before the festival starts in June.

He and Cordick, the executive director, begin to plan more than a year ahead. He decides which guest artists to hire and which orchestras will perform what music.

"Because of his international name, we can more easily engage top-notch artists," says Barbara Morgenstern, who serves as co-chairman of the EMF board with LeBauer.

Schwarz looks for symphonies and other works that audiences will enjoy and that the faculty orchestra will enjoy performing. For student orchestras, he and Novo seek works that they don't play in their home orchestras.

What Schwarz doesn't choose is the EMFfringe series, alternative music such as rock, blues and bluegrass played downtown at Triad Stage. Philion started it in 2003; EMF board member Jeff Yetter planned it this year.

Although Schwarz favors EMFfringe because it expands the festival and pays for itself, "I don't get involved because of my lack of expertise," he says.

Looking ahead, he talks of increasing EMF's endowment, student scholarships, faculty salaries and audiences for some concerts. He contemplates whether to add a conducting seminar, not just for orchestra leaders but for school conductors.

Schwarz juggles his EMF duties with his roles as music director and conductor at the Seattle Symphony, a high-pressure, high-visibility post.

Despite his Seattle successes, his long tenure there has produced critics as well as supporters.

According to local and national newspaper accounts, some musicians there have criticized his musicianship and portrayed him as a harsh taskmaster, allegations that he long has disputed.

In September, Schwarz announced that he would step down as Seattle's music director when his contract expires in 2011. He will become conductor laureate and conduct there as a guest and continue composing his own music.

The criticism played no part in his decision, he says.

"It was the right moment. I have done much of what I have tried to accomplish," Schwarz says.

"When you are in a place for 25 years, some musicians are not going to like you."

But ask at EMF, and several board members, faculty and students voice nothing but compliments.

Ronald Long Jr., a 17-year-old student violinist from Greensboro, describes Schwarz as "demanding but kind" when he prepared a student orchestra for concert.

"He is very sensitive to the musicians," Long says. "He makes it really fun."

Several faculty and board members say that he has elevated the festival's quality and visibility.

"He has been a great fit for us here," says Jeffrey Multer, EMF's longtime concertmaster.

"He is very pleasant and always very professional and enthusiastic. He began his career as a great trumpet player, and he understands what his players need.

"And he is into what this place is about -- a training ground for young people."

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com