Long formal bio:
Pianist Jocelyn Swigger is Professor of Music and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies of Gettysburg College Sunderman Conservatory, and she is on the piano faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp. She is a leading performer and scholar of music by the Romantic composer Agnes Tyrrell and has published and premiered many of her works. Her edition of Tyrrell’s Twelve Concert Etudes is forthcoming on Certosa Verlag, and she will be recording them this summer.
“An hour of pure musical pleasure” was the BlogCritics review of her album of all the Chopin etudes, recorded with original ornaments on a Paris Erard piano tuned to a historical temperament. You can find her tutorials on playing all the Chopin etudes with small hands on YouTube. Her latest recording, of classical art songs by female composers with soprano Susan Hochmiller, is on Centaur Records. Radio broadcasts include NPR stations WBFO in Buffalo NY, WSUiR in Wichita KS, and IPR in Interlochen WI. Jocelyn has hosted two podcasts: Play It Again Swig (an audio practice diary) and Just Piano Improv. You can find them on iTunes and at jocelynswigger.com. She often presents at MTNA national conferences as well as regional CMS and PMTA conferences. Her TEDx talk, How I Memorize Piano Music, has over 850K views.
She performs as a solo and collaborative pianist in the United States, Europe, and South America, and has appeared as performer and teacher at the Ameropa chamber music festival in the Czech Republic and Spain. She has also taught at Fort Lewis College, the Hochstein Music School, CUNY Queensborough, and Adelphi University, and she played as a collaborative artist and accompanist for the Manhattan School of Music, the Castleman Quartet Program, the Boys Choir of Harlem Academy, and the Juilliard School. She spent the summer of 2008 on a Fulbright Scholar Teaching Grant in Asunción, Paraguay, teaching piano and chamber music. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she made her concerto debut at the age of 16 and studied with Morton Schoenfeld, George Robert, and Evelyne Brancart. She holds undergraduate degrees from Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Rebecca Penneys.
Jocelyn has always been a musical omnivore. An advocate of new music, she has premiered works by composers including Dennis DeSantis, Payton MacDonald, Gavin Chuck, Aaron Grad, Buzz Jones, Greg Mertl, Forrest Pierce, and Allan Krantz. She has appeared on Composers Forum concerts at Eastman, Oberlin, Cornell, and NYU, and was a board member and frequent performer for Ossia New Music at Eastman. Her interest in early music has led her to study and perform on the harpsichord and fortepiano. In addition to her life as a classical musician, she also performed on accordion, vocals, and occasional electric bass in the indie folk rock band Gettysburg Pirate Orchestra. An avid student of yoga, she also studies Alexander Technique at the Balance Arts Center. She is very proud of learning to stand on her head at age 50. Jocelyn serves as Judge of Elections in her local precinct, and encourages you to vote in every local election. More information at jocelynswigger.com