Chris Swist

Education

MM, The Hartt School, University of Hartford

BM, State University of NY at Buffalo

Christopher Swist grew up in the music industry and was a drum prodigy. He started lessons with Buffalo Philharmonic percussionist John Rowland at age 6. His percussion studies continued with Jan Williams and Anthony Miranda at SUNY-Buffalo through Ben Toth and Alexander Lepak at The Hartt School. His composition teachers include Jeffrey Stadelman, Stephen Gryc, Robert Carl, Ken Steen, and Ingram Marshall. Swist culminated his unique compositional voice, performance practice, and recording engineering into 2 solo albums: Whitewater of 2001 and Duality of 2013.

Christopher’s varied catalog of orchestral, percussion, chamber and electronic music is published with Alfred Music, Studio 4 Music, Keyboard Percussion Publications, Edition Svitzer, and Bachovich Music. His music has been performed by The Louisville Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, Grupo PIAP, YoungArts, and the United States Military Academy. He presents solo recitals as a performer/composer who plays both acoustic and electronic music. He also performs in the percussion section of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Professor Swist is an educator, pedagogue, and administrator. He is currently Director of Recording Arts at Trinity College in Hartford. He was formally Resident Artist at Keene State College in New Hampshire where he taught percussion, music technology, composition, and music theory. He has also taught at The Hartt School, Bennington College, Holyoke Community College, and Franklin Pierce University. Christopher owns and operates his own recording studio, EvenFall Studio LLC, in New Hampshire and is a pro audio writer/reviewer for SonicScoop.