Accompanist Paul Swenson

Paul Swenson (1964) earned both a Master of Music, and a Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he studied composition with Lee Hyla.  He also benefited from the guidance and advice of Ezra Pound.  Prior to that, he studied composition with Gregory Youtz at Pacific Lutheran University, and piano with Richard Farner.

His compositions have been performed by the Berlin Saxophone Quartet, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet, and the Ancia Saxophone Quartet, which gave his work Hellion a performance at the 1995 Klangfenster Festival in Berlin, and pianist Julie Ives.  His piano solo, Sasquatch, was performed by the composer at the Anton Dvorak museum in Prague .  Swenson received a reading of his orchestral work, G-Force, with Donald Palma (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra) conducting.  In 2006, his work Overture was performed by the chamber orchestra Affinity at the Seattle Symphony’s Made in America Festival.  

As a pianist, Swenson has performed with the Seattle Fringe Festival, the 14/48 Theatre Festival, and the Contemporary Chamber Composers and Players, among many others.  Currently, he is the Supply Organist at the historic Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Seattle, and Interim Organist with University Congregational UCC.  Swenson has received awards from ASCAP's Grants for Young Composers, the Percussive Arts Society, and the Composer's Guild.  He is the sole composer winner of the 1995 Janet Gates Peckham International Prize, and he was a member of the 1997 Czech-American Music Institute.