In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with Adam Swanson a professional pianist and one of the world’s foremost performers of vintage American popular music.

Four Corners Arts Forum

Join me for conversation with Adam Swanson one of the world’s foremost performers of vintage American popular music, including ragtime, early jazz and the Great American Songbook. He is a four-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, and a featured performer and lecturer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the US and abroad. He made his New York debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of nineteen and has also performed at the Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Hollywood as well as the Kennedy Center and internationally in Hungary, Switzerland and Australia. He received a bachelor’s degree in classical piano and a master’s in musicology from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University and although there is no degree specifically for vintage American popular music Adam has managed to make a living playing the music he loves. He has been influenced by and worked with many accomplished musicians such as Toronto’s John Arpin, former rock star Ian Whitcomb and legendary 1950s recording artist Johnny Maddox. Adam calls Durango, Colorado his home and this Sunday August 11th at The Durango Arts Center at 2:00pm you can enjoy an afternoon of “Silent Sundays with Swanson” watching a silent film classic from the 1920s accompanied live by Adam Swanson on piano. This Sunday’s film is called “The Round Up” starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and these “Silent Sundays” will continue to happen four to five times a year. Adam also performs regularly at the Diamond Belle Saloon where he highlights his favorite ragtime and early jazz songs hoping to keep the “fabulous, sophisticated, joyful music of the first half of the twentieth century alive”.

You can find out more by visiting his website at www.adamgswanson.com.

For tickets to “Silent Sundays with Adam Swanson” visit www.durangoarts.org