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The American choral conductor and organist, Lynn Swanson, obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance from Shorter University in Rome, Georgia; and her Master of Music Education degree in Choral Pedagogy from the University of Kansas (2008-2018).
Lynn Swanson is one of the most consequential leaders in the nearly four-decade history of the Choral Foundation in Atlanta. She is, unmistakably, one of the most significant music leaders of our time in the Atlanta and Cobb communities. She has enjoyed a significant international career, serving church positions in Germany that included a performance in the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Significant church positions where she has served as Music Director and as Organist/Choirmaster, including All Saints Cathedral in Milwaukee (May 2019-August 2020), St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Smyrna, Georgia, Due West United Methodist Church in Marietta, and many others across the Atlanta region.
From 2017-2018 Lynn Swanson served as Assistant Director of the Zhuhai Classical Children’s Choir in Zhuhai, China, near Hong Kong. During her lauded tenure there she conducted the chorus on national television in China in a performance at the Beijing International Music Festival. From 2018 to 2020 she served as Executive Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Children’s Choir.
Lynn Swanson served a number of leading positions with the Choral Foundation from 2006-2018. She founded the Cobb Summer Singers in 2006, the Northside Young Singers in 2008, the Cobb Festival Singers in 2009, and the Institute for Healthy Singing in 2015. She served as Associate Director of the Choral Foundation’s original ensemble, now called The New South Festival Singers, from 2010 to 2015, before her appointment as the second Music Director of the ensemble in 2015, a positions she held until 2017. She co-created the Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit in 2014, and served as Executive Associate Music Director of the Choral Foundation from 2011 to 2017. She was Faculty Member of International Federation of Choral Music Contract (June 2020-March 2021); since January 2020, she is Music Director of Developing Voices.
Lynn Swanson’s conducting portfolio of choral-orchestral masterworks is extensive, including Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor BWV 232, Cantata Christ lag in todesbanden BWV 4, Cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047, Cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen BWV 51 & and Magnificat in D major, BWV 243; George Frideric Handel: Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Dettingen Te Deum, Coronation Anthems & Water Music Suite; W.A. Mozart: Coronation Mass, Solemn Vespers, Exsultate Jubilate, Eine kleine Nachtmusik & Missa Brevis in D; L.v. Beethoven: Mass in C; Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah; Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem; Schubert’s Mass in G; Haydn’s Te Deum; Antonio Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir; Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms & Missa Brevis; along with many other works. Her choral ensembles have been featured recently as headline performers at the Christmas Atlanta Festival, Arts International, and appear annually at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Collaborations have involved musicians from the Kansas City Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Kazinetti Quartet.
Lynn Swanson is Director of the Baroque Summer Institute Chorus (formerly Cobb Summer Singers) and the Lynn Swanson Festival Singers (formerly William Baker Festival Singers). |
