Jan Swafford

Jan Swafford is a composer and writer. His musical works range from orchestral and chamber to film and theater music, including six pieces for orchestra, Midsummer Variations for piano quintet, They That Mourn for piano trio, They Who Hunger for piano quartet, From the Shadow of the Mountain for string orchestra, and Late Autumn--First Snow for orchestra. His music has been played around the United States and abroad by ensembles including the symphonies of St. Louis, Indianapolis, Vermont, Harrisburg, and Chattanooga, the American Composers Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Orchestra, and Orchestra New England. Recordings include the piano quintet Midsummer Variations by the Scott Chamber Players, The Silence at Yuma Point by cellist Rhonda Rider, and Music Like Steel and Like Fire by pianist Adam Golka. Among his honors as a composer are a National Endowment for the Arts Composers Grant and two Massachusetts Artists Council Fellowships. Swafford’s biographies of Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms are published internationally and, along with his Charles Ives, are widely considered the leading biographies of the composers. Three were Critic’s Choices in The New York Times. As a musical journalist and scholar, Swafford has written for The Atlantic, Guardian International, Gramophone, Symphony, American Music, Van, and 19th Century Music. His Slate articles won a Deems Taylor Award for online writing in music. He has written numerous program notes for the Boston Symphony and other orchestras and has been a guest lecturer for the symphonies of Los Angeles and Detroit, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, the Rosendal Music Festival in Norway, and the Ultima Festival in Oslo.