Biography
Curator
Mazz Swift
Mazz Swift is a composer, conductor, singer, bandleader, educator, and Juilliard-trained violinist. Improvisation is a throughline in their practice across genres and instrumental configurations and can be found in most of their works.
As violinist and singer, Mx. Swift is no stranger to most of the world’s greatest stages including Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, and, at Lincoln Center in New York City, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Damrosch Park. As composer, Swift’s works include commissions by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, and the Blaffer Foundation. As an educator, Swift has taught workshops in free improvisation and “conduction” (conducted improvisation) on six continents and is a performing member and teaching artist with the Grammy-award winning Silkroad Ensemble.
Mazz is a 2021 United States Artist and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, continually creating orchestral compositions that involve conduction, small ensemble works featuring improvisation, and solo works that are centered around protest and freedom songs, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward.
As violinist and singer, Mx. Swift is no stranger to most of the world’s greatest stages including Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, and, at Lincoln Center in New York City, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Damrosch Park. As composer, Swift’s works include commissions by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, and the Blaffer Foundation. As an educator, Swift has taught workshops in free improvisation and “conduction” (conducted improvisation) on six continents and is a performing member and teaching artist with the Grammy-award winning Silkroad Ensemble.
Mazz is a 2021 United States Artist and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, continually creating orchestral compositions that involve conduction, small ensemble works featuring improvisation, and solo works that are centered around protest and freedom songs, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward.
