Elizabeth Swanson is associate director of choral activities and associate professor of music at the University of Colorado Boulder where she conducts the University Choir and Treble Chorus. Under her direction, the University Choir was selected to perform at the 2025 National Collegiate Choral Organization National Conference at Cal State Fullerton and performed at the 2023 Colorado Music Educators Association Conference. Swanson also teaches undergraduate conducting courses and serves on master's and doctoral committees. She oversaw the CU Boulder Choral Program as interim director for four semesters (2018-19; 2024), supervising all aspects of the program. In 2024, she received a university-wide Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award acknowledging her contributions to CU Boulder through scholarly and creative work, teaching, leadership and service. A sought-after guest conductor, pedagogue and presenter, Swanson has been a headlining artist for concerts at Carnegie Hall (2022 and 2024). She is regularly invited to be in residence and conduct festivals at higher education institutions such as Montana State University, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and University of Illinois Chicago. For three seasons, she served as associate conductor of Boulder-based Ars Nova Singers. Nationally, Swanson serves as the National Co-chair of Student Activities for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Swanson has also been a member of the conducting faculty at Nyack College in lower Manhattan (NYC), University of Chicago, North Park University and Ithaca College, and was a conductor of choral ensembles at Northwestern University and Roosevelt University in Chicago. Her dissertation was a qualitative analysis of “August 4, 1964,” an oratorio by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky with libretto by Gene Scheer. Her degrees are from Northwestern University (DMus conducting), Ithaca College (MM conducting) and St. Olaf College (BM education).
keywords
Performance, conducting, choral methods, conducting pedagogy, vocal pedagogy, choral-orchestral masterworks, music education, undergraduate and graduate student mentorship, choral music history, wellness.
