Thomas Swenson

 Dr. Thomas Swenson, assistant professor of music and director of the Salem College Community Music School, is regarded highly for his work in piano pedagogy, group piano, applied piano lessons, music theory, music technology and composition.  In addition to his work at Salem College, he teaches courses in Class Piano, Piano Pedagogy and Music Theory at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is a regular piano instructor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro Summer Music Camp program.  He studied with renowned pedagogues Drs. Jane Magrath and Barbara Fast.  He has studied piano and/or performed in master classes with John Salmon, Howard Lubin, Ann Schein, Charles Rosen, Gilbert Kalish and William Black.  Additional advanced training in performance, choral conducting and composing have taken place at the SUNY at Stony Brook, the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and the Van Cliburn Piano Institute (as a teacher-performer). 

Swenson is a nationally-recognized leader in the field of piano pedagogy.  His dissertation, focusing on the specific traits of adult piano students, has contributed important information to this area of piano pedagogy.  Additional areas of interest include the art of practicing, teaching composition, successful partner lessons and keyboard ensemble literature.  He has presented nationally at the Music Teachers National Association, Music Educators National Conference, and the World Music Symposium in addition to many state and local conferences and workshops. 

Articles and reports by Swenson have been published in the online journal Piano Pedagogy Forum (recipient of a Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award).  An article on teaching adult piano students will be published in the November/December issue of the internationally-acclaimed Clavier Companion.

Swenson has served leadership roles in many music organizations.  In 2006 he co-founded a local piano teacher discussion group in the Winston-Salem area.  After serving as the piano section chair for the North Carolina Music Teachers Association, he now is serving a second term as Vice-President for membership. In the biannual Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy (GP3) conferences he has served as a group discussion leader and reporter. 

Swenson is in great demand as a piano instructor.  Many of his pre-college students have received superior and excellent ratings in the competitive NCMTA piano competition.  High school graduates have been accepted and received scholarships to leading conservatories, universities, and colleges.  He has instructed many private and group lessons to adults, and recently taught a unique Recreational Music Making (RMM) course on Crystal Cruises to adults as they traveled Italy, Greece and Turkey. 

As a performer and composer Swenson has traveled throughout the USA and is featured on many CDs (Gentle Beauty, This Journey Called Life, We All Sing).  He has accompanied famed mezzo-soprano Barbara Caprilli in concerts in North Carolina and Missouri.  His compositions and arrangements include functional music for worship, art songs, solo piano pieces, choral arrangements and music for dance and film.  He is currently the director of music ministries at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Greensboro, with a membership of more than 1600 families.  He directs and accompanies the St. Paul Adult Choir and co-directs the Hosanna Chorale (for ages 8-14).  Few things please him more than hearing a congregation of 600 or more people singing his music.