Schwartz (right) and award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda after a production of Hamilton on Broadway.

It’s not every day that one gets to meet American Composer Lin Manuel Miranda (who wrote the music for Broadway’s “Hamilton” and Disney’s “Moana”), and get complementary tickets to Broadway shows, but for Bethel alumnus Jared Schwartz ’04, this is normal.

Schwartz is a bass soloist for opera, oratorio and concerts, as well as a pianist, composer and music director in both classical and popular music. He has built up his résumé by recording chart-topping albums and teaching vocal lessons to students who have gone on to perform on Broadway.

“A typical day in my life is filled with rehearsing my own singing for a couple of hours and then teaching for six or seven hours,” says Schwartz, who is working on album number five, with plans of recording albums six through 10.

This disciplined work ethic has been with Schwartz from an early age.

“As a 7-year-old child I announced that I needed to learn the violin, because Mozart played violin at that age, too, and I needed to keep up,” he says. “So my parents found me a violin teacher, and off I went. I had a different private music lesson nearly every day of the week between piano, violin, French horn and other lessons.”

Schwartz enrolled at Bethel during the spring of 2001, and the college continues to play a key role in his career.

“Bethel has always been part of my world,” says Schwartz, whose mother and two of his three brothers are Bethel alumni.

Schwartz during an album recording session.

Initially, Schwartz wanted to pursue pre-med and music, but he decided to stick with music after feeling that it was God’s calling for him. Schwartz credits Vicky Garrett, D.M.N., Robert Rhein, Ph.D., John Dendiu, Ph.D., and Shawn Holtgren, Ph.D., ’95, ’97 — mentors and teachers of his at Bethel — for helping him get to where he is today.

Upon graduating from Bethel, Schwartz attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music and then moved to Dallas, Texas, where he began teaching voice lessons.

“As I’ve continued on since finishing my degrees, I think my plan has always been to keep growing, keep improving, keep learning.”

This past summer, Schwartz made his Italian debut as the bass soloist in Verdi’s “Requiem” in Como, Italy. Last summer, he was selected as a guest lecturer for the University of Texas Southwestern Hospital’s symposium on the voice. Two of his students were cast in Broadway’s “Spiderman: Turn off the Dark”; and one of his students, who is currently in the cast of “Hamilton,” gave him fourth row tickets to see the show, followed by a meeting with Lin Manuel Miranda.

“I enjoy doing hard work and getting things done, and then I just try to release the work to God to do with as He wills. My prayer every day is: Here’s my heart, Lord, take it where You will.”

Schwartz returned to Bethel’s campus in January to hold a master class.

“The students are so talented and lovely, and the Bethel faculty continues to be some of the best people out there.”