Bio
Upcoming performances
Steven Swartz is a composer whose music explores the interplay of sound and silence, form and memory, intention and process. Possessing “an instinct for sensuous color-blends” (Buffalo News), Swartz creates musical landscapes that evolve unpredictably as they move through time, like cloud formations across the sky.
During his teens Swartz performed professionally as a singer/songwriter in his native upstate New York. Following studies in music and philosophy at Swarthmore College, he earned a PhD in Composition at University at Buffalo under principal teacher Morton Feldman. His music has been performed by cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, String Noise, Numinous, Momenta Quartet, pianist Margaret Leng-Tan, Aperture Duo, RighteousGIRLS, the Sorce/Lodge Duo, pianist Yvar Mikhashoff, and others.
In the mid-80s Swartz formed the “avant-folk” ensemble Songs from a Random House, which released two critically acclaimed albums on the Bar/None and Sargasso labels before disbanding in 2006. Alex Ross described the group’s second album, gListen (2004), as “bright, quirky, tuneful.”
After a hiatus of more than two decades, he has made a striking return to concert music, with five major scores since 2020: Corduroy (guitar and piano) for the Sorce/Lodge Duo; 10 Narrow Trees for Small Gardens (flute and prepared piano), written for RighteousGIRLS; Any minute, now (large ensemble), composed for Joseph C. Phillips’ Numinous ensemble; and merger, an 13-minute duo for violin and viola, commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Aperture Duo, who premiered it in April 2024.
His latest work is When the horizon has a mind of its own, commissioned by pianist Marilyn Nonken for herself and percussionist Jonathan Haas. The 21-minute score will premiere on April 24, 2025 at NYU.
Steven Swartz is also the founder of Dotdotdotmusic, a public relations firm devoted to new classical music, and a founding board member of the free, citywide Make Music New York festival. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.
April 24, 2025 (8 pm): Pianist Marilyn Nonken and percussionist Jonathan Haas give the world premiere of When the horizon has a mind of its own at NYU’s Paulson Center | EVENT INFO