Waukon High School alum Gary Schwartzhoff honored with Marshall Bartholomew Award

Dr. Gary R. Schwartzhoff, DMA, a 1970 graduate of Waukon High School and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, has been honored by Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, Inc. as the recipient of the Marshall Bartholomew Award. Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, Inc. is a National Association of Male Choruses that strives to promote quality men’s chorus singing and music, and its membership is made up of male choruses/glee clubs of the nation’s universities, colleges and secondary schools.

The Bartholomew Award was established by Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, Inc. (IMC) in 1978 after the death of the legendary conductor of the Yale Glee Club and founder of the Intercollegiate Musical Council, now IMC. The award honors choral musicians who have made significant contributions to the field of male choral music.

Dr. Schwartzhoff, now in his 46th year as a music educator, served as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire from 1991 to 2016. As conductor of UW-Eau Claire’s Singing Statesmen (and six other choirs at UW-Eau Claire), Schwartzhoff commissioned more than 80 choral works and made more than 50 CD recordings. The Singing Statesmen, UW-Eau Claire’s tenor-bass choir, premiered many of these works at festivals and conferences held by major organizations in the choral field, including state, regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, and national conferences of the National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC) and IMC.

During his long and distinguished career, Schwartzhoff served on IMC’s Board of Directors and hosted the organization’s National Seminar twice at UW-Eau Claire. After his retirement from university teaching, Schwartzhoff has continued his work as conductor of The Master Singers in Eau Claire, where he also serves as Director of Music at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, conducting the Chancel Choir.

Throughout Schwartzhoff’s career, he has achieved a variety of noteworthy accomplishments. He has also been the recipient of numerous other accolades, some of which are noted below.

The Wisconsin Choral Directors Association presented him the Outstanding Church Musician Award in 2007 and recipient of the Morris Hayes Award (named for one of his predecessors at UW-Eau Claire) for lifetime achievement in the choral art in 2010. He conducted national choral festivals honoring former U.S. presidents in Washington in 2009 (Abraham Lincoln), 2013 (John F. Kennedy) and 2016 (Franklin D. Roosevelt).

In July 2019, Schwartzhoff conducted the 75th Anniversary of D-Day and the Liberation of France Choral Festival in Paris. He has presented over 30 juried performances at the state, divisional and national levels of the American Choral Directors Association, IMC (hosted in 1996, 2006 and performed in 2016) and the National Association for Music Education. On the international stage, he has presented 15 concert tours on three continents.

In receiving the Marshall Bartholomew Award, Schwartzhoff is pleased that to join two other recipients who were former UW-Eau Claire choral directors: Morris Hayes and Bruce McInnes. Schwartzhoff also pointed out that he has enormous respect for the previous Bartholomew Award recipient Paul Salamunovich (1927-2014), who led the Los Angeles Master Chorale and conducted choirs for the scores of such films as “The Godfather” and “Flatliners.” He also conducted the choir at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in North Hollywood, CA. “I would describe Paul as my musical mentor,” Schwartzhoff said.

Schwartzhoff met Salamunovich in the 1970s when he attended a choral workshop in Denver, CO. Over the decades Schwartzhoff attended numerous choral conferences across the country. While enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, Salamunovich was a guest conductor at an International Choral Symposium, hosted by Dr. Eph Ehly, where Schwartzhoff assisted with the symposium. As a mentor, Salamunovich wrote a letter of recommendation for Schwartzhoff.

In composer Mulholland’s professional opinion, Schwartzhoff clearly belongs next to Salamunovich as a recipient of the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, Inc. Marshall Bartholomew Award. Mulholland stated, “One of my favorite statements, and Gary certainly adheres to this, is: ‘If you educate a student, you give them life. But if you inspire a student, you give them the world’,” he said. “And with Gary Schwartzhoff, he has given his students the world.”