During his 26-year tenure as music director of the Seattle Symphony (between 1983 and 2011), Gerard Schwarz championed a segment of the orchestral repertoire which remains somewhat neglected. It is the mid-twentieth century symphonic music of American composers such as Howard Hanson, David Diamond, Paul Creston, Walter Piston, and Alan Hovhaness. When Schwarz came to Richmond a few seasons ago, I let him know that a handful of his recordings, featuring this repertoire, had been among my favorites as a teenager.