 In 1986, Schoenberg joined the American Jazz Orchestra, where he remained until 1992, playing tenor sax and later following John Lewis as its musical director.He has conducted the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.In 1988 and 1989, he conducted the West German Radio Orchestra for a series of concerts, performing the works of George Gershwin and Duke Ellington for audiences in Cologne.