Joseph Swensen Explained

Joseph Swensen
Birth Place:Hoboken, New Jersey, United States
Era:Contemporary

Joseph Swensen is a conductor, violinist, and composer. He is winner of awards, including the Leventritt Foundation Sponsorship Award and the Avery Fisher Career Award. In 2000, Swensen was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews, Scotland.[1] In 2014, he gave a TedX talk with the title “Habitats for Music and the Sound of Math” about music education and the developing brain, at the New York Institute of Technology.

Early life and education

Joseph Swensen was born in 1960 in Hoboken, New Jersey, and grew up in Spring Valley, New York, Pearl River, New York and Harlem, New York City.[2] His mother, Kikue Swenson was Japanese-American and has played and taught piano for most of her life. His father is Norwegian-American. He studied music at the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Dorothy DeLay.[3]

Soloist

Until his thirties, Swensen's career was as a violin soloist. He performed in major cultural centres, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston. During his early career recording with BMG Classics,[4] [5] he recorded the major violin concerto repertoire with conductors such as André Previn.[6] More recently, he has recorded as soloist with The Scottish Chamber Orchestra.[7] He now combines a career as soloist and chamber musician with that of conducting.[8] [9]

Conducting

Swensen currently holds the post of Conductor Emeritus of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra,[10] where he was Principal Conductor from 1996-2005 during which time Swensen and the orchestra followed a regular concert schedule in Scotland[11] and toured extensively in the UK,[12] Europe, US, and the Far East. They also performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals, the BBC Proms, the Barbican, and the Concertgebouw, and recorded for Linn Records.[13] From 2006 - 2011, he was music director with Malmő Opera and is guest conductor for a number of UK,[14] European[15] and American orchestras.[16] Succeeding Paul Daniel, Joseph Swensen was appointed musical director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (ONBA) in May 2023 as of the 2024-2025 season.[17]

Teaching

Joseph Swensen joined IU in 2013. He is appointed Starling Professor of Music (violin) at Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music in 2014.[18] Along with his wife, Victoria Swensen, he founded Habitat4Music, a non-profit organization devoted to establishing participatory music education programmes for children in musically under-served areas worldwide.[19] At the Habitat4Music Centre in Vermont Swensen held "Total Immersion" courses in important composers for professional musicians and conductors.[20]

Selected Recordings

Selected Compositions

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Honour for Scottish Chamber Orchestra conductor . March 10, 2000 . University of St Andrews . February 9, 2015.
  2. Web site: Niles. Laurie. Grigory Kalinovsky and Joseph Swensen named Starling Professors of Violin at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. Violinist.com. 24 February 2016.
  3. Web site: Joseph Swensen, violin. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. 23 February 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160507035802/http://www.laco.org/artists/joseph-swensen/. May 7, 2016. dead.
  4. Web site: Joseph Swensen. Discogs. 23 February 2016.
  5. Web site: Conductor Joseph Swensen. Carl Nielsen Masterclass. 23 February 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160818232722/http://cnmasterclass.dk/2012/?page_id=29. August 18, 2016. dead.
  6. Web site: Michael . Oliver . Beethoven Violin Concerto; Romances . Gramaphone Reviews . n.d. . February 9, 2016.
  7. Web site: Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor . www.classical-music.com: The official website of BBC Music Magazine . BBC . February 9, 2016.
  8. Web site: Schwartz. KI Robert. MUSIC; To the Podium Born: A True Believer. The New York Times. 23 February 2016.
  9. Web site: Ponnekanti. Rosemary. Three partners, three profiles: Joseph Swensen. The News Tribune. 23 February 2016.
  10. Web site: Thompson . Simon . SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW: Borodin, Sibelius, Beethoven: Henning Kraggerud (violin), Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Joseph Swensen (conductor), Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 15.10.2009 . MusicWeb . February 9, 2016.
  11. Web site: Allen . James . Swensen fleshes out a jubilant Ninth: James Allen reviews the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Swensen at City Hall, Glasgow . October 8, 2002 . The Telegraph . U.K. . February 9, 2016.
  12. News: Evans . Rian . BBC NOW / Swensen, St David's Hall, Cardiff . 4 February 2004 . The Guardian . February 9, 2016.
  13. Web site: Rogers . Claire . Brahms Violin Concerto, Hungarian Dances Review . www.bbc.co.uk . 2004 . BBC . 9 February 2016.
  14. Web site: Schweitzer. Louise. London Philharmonic Orchestra, Brighton Dome Concert Hall, March 22. The Argus. 23 February 2016.
  15. Web site: Joseph Swensen. Signum Classics. 23 February 2016.
  16. Web site: Meet the Artistic Partners . Northwest Sinfonietta . February 9, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160209164829/http://northwestsinfonietta.org/about-nws/music-director . February 9, 2016 . dead .
  17. https://www.pizzicato.lu/joseph-swensen-appointed-music-director-of-the-orchestre-national-bordeaux-aquitaine/
  18. Web site: IU Jacobs School of Music appoints Joseph Swensen to violin faculty . April 18, 2013 . The Strad . February 9, 2016 .
  19. Web site: Habitat4Music . habitat4music.org . February 8, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160206233548/http://habitat4music.org/ . February 6, 2016 . dead .
  20. Web site: "Total Immersion" at Habitat4Music . habitat4music.org . Habitat4Music . February 8, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160216221105/http://habitat4music.org/total-immersion/ . February 16, 2016 . dead .
  21. Web site: Johannes Brahms Sinfonia in B orchestrated. World Cat. Signum. 1 March 2016.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joseph Swensen".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.