Adam Swayne
Deputy Head of School of Keyboard Studies and Professor of Piano
MusB (Hons), MMus, DM (Northwestern University, USA), GRNCM, SFHEA
Email: [email protected]
- Piano teaching, auditioning and assessing
- School of Keyboard Studies activities
- Contemporary music
- Research
- PhD supervision and reviewing
Pianist Adam Swayne studied on the dual award between the University of Manchester and the RNCM before completing his doctorate as a Fulbright Scholar in the USA. His principal teachers were John Gough, John Casken, Kevin Malone and Ursula Oppens.
Since returning from the US, Adam has developed a busy performing career that includes frequent concerto appearances, solo recitals and ensemble performances. He has been the pianist for Riot Ensemble since its inception in 2009 and is now co-Artistic Director. He also performs with the Broken Line Trio and was a Park Lane Young Artist in 2008.
In April 2019 BBC Music Magazine named his solo recital CD (speak to me): new music new politics as Instrumental Monthly Choice. BBC Radio 3’s Record Review said that it is “brave … flambouyant … a cleverly designed, exuberantly performed and arresting exercise in putting the politics back into the piano recital”. It was the only CD to be nominated in two categories at the 2019 Opus Klassik awards in Germany. His second CD for Coviello was a commemorative recital for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and was launched with a concert at the Wigmore Hall on September 11th 2021.
Adam’s research interests also focus on the performance and culture surrounding the nineteenth century concerto and include (re)discovery of works by German composer Ferdinand Ries.
Additionally, Adam is a composer and conductor, having served as Music Director for Contemporary Music for All (CoMA) in Sussex (2008-2017) and nationally between 2012 and 2014.
Adam began working at the RNCM in September 2017 having previously taught at Junior RAM and at the University of Chichester where he was Head of Chamber Music. Initially lecturing in Academic Studies, he joined the School of Keyboard in 2020 as Deputy Head.
The Times described him as ‘a pianist of formidable technique and high intelligence’ and the Evening Standard as ‘the ideal blend of panache and subtlety’.
Current and Future Research
Dr Adam Swayne commissions and records new works within adventurous programmes of solo piano music. His recording ‘(speak to me) new music new politics’, released in January 2019 on the Coviello label, included premiere recordings of Amy Beth Kirsten (Juilliard School) and Kevin Malone (University of Manchester) alongside works by Rzewski, Gershwin and Gould. The social and political investigations of the CD were presented at the University of Memphis (‘Balancing the Mix’ conference, 30/03/19), Northwestern University, (solo recital, 04/04/19) and also resulted in an additional new work from Malone, premiered at the Stoller Hall in Manchester (09/08/24). Adam worked again with Malone on ‘Sudden Memorials’, an extended and theatrical work premiered at the Wigmore Hall on the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This formed part of a wider exploration into how musicians respond to catastrophe, resulting in another solo recording ‘9/11:20’ released by Coviello in 2021 (including works by Karen Walwyn (Berklee College of Music), Del Tredici, Joplin and Cowell) and a 2024 work by Nina Whiteman (RHUL) ‘Earthed’.
As co-Artistic Director of the Riot Ensemble, Adam presents a large number of ensemble premieres every year, many of them internationally. Recent performances include the SPOR Festival (Denmark), MaerzMusik (Germany), Time of Music (Finland), Klangspuren (Austria) and Mixtur (Spain) alongside Brighton, Aldeburgh and HCMF (UK).
Adam is also a musicologist specialising in 19th century concertos. His edition and commentary of the previously unseen original version of Ferdinand Ries’s Op.123 Piano Concerto (1806) is shortly to be published by A-R Editions. He also presented this research at the ‘Financing Music in Europe from the 18th to the Early 20th Century’ conference in Lucca, Italy in 2020. As a performer, Adam has presented in recent seasons concertos by Ireland, Gregson, Grieg, Rachmaninov and double concertos by Mozart and Elliott Carter.
Research Areas
- Piano Performance
- Composition and Contemporary Music
- Music and Society
- 19th Century Musicology
External Research Roles
Adam will be an external PhD Examiner at the University of Bristol in 2024. Additionally, Riot Ensemble are mentors at the Lucerne Foundation.
Research Funding
Siemens Foundation: Riot Ensemble were awarded the inaugural Ensemble Prize.
Arts Council England
Garfield Weston Foundation
Undergraduate Teaching
- Principal study piano tuition
- Contemporary piano
Postgraduate Teaching
- Principal study piano tuition
- Postgraduate mentoring
Research Supervision
- Matthew Lau: “Charles Griffes: More than just an American impressionist. An investigation into the complete piano works.”
- Dobromir Tsenov: “Lyubomir Pipkov’s complete piano music. Stylistic evolution and performance aspects of his piano works.”
- Hwan Hee Kim: “Kuk-jin Kim and his piano works: The Sound of Korea.”
- Dr Melvin Tay (completed): “Re-realising opera performance for chamber ensemble.”
Selected Outputs
Written Outputs
- Ferdinand Ries, ed. Adam Swayne, Grand Concert pour le Pianoforte: First Version of Piano Concerto, Op.123 (Wisconsin USA: A-R Editions, 2025).
Practice Research/ Compositions
- Nina Whiteman, Earthed, premiered by Adam Swayne (piano) and Nina Whiteman (electronics), Martin Harris Centre, Manchester, UK (22 Feb 2024).
- Bára Gísladóttir, The moon is an eye is a pond and so on and so forth, premiered by Riot Ensemble cond. Adam Swayne, Bates Mill, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK (26 Nov 2023).
- Matthew Sergeant, A Self-Portrait (Couperin), premiered by Adam Swayne (piano and electronics), Stoller Hall, Manchester, UK (20 Aug 2023).
- Ferdinand Ries, Premiere of Ferdinand Ries Concerto, performed by Adam Swayne (piano)/ Musicians of All Saints cond. Andrew Sherwood, St Mary’s Church, Brighton, UK (15 Jan 2022).
- Kevin Malone, Karen Walwyn, David Del Tredici, Henry Cowell, Scott Joplin, 9:11/20, Adam Swayne (piano), July 22-23, Coviello Contemporary, COV92111, 2021, CD.
- Julius Eastman, arr. Adam Swayne, Gay Guerrilla, performed by RNCM pianists on six pianos, RNCM Concert Hall, Manchester, UK (30 Jun 2021).
- Tom Coult, Inventions (for Heath Robinson), premiered by Adam Swayne, Leconfield Hall, Petworth Festival, UK (2 Aug 2019).
- Kevin Malone, Amy Beth Kirsten, Frederic Rzewski, George Gershwin, Morton Gould, (speak to me): new music new politics, Adam Swayne (piano), August 13-15, Coviello Contemporary, COV91818, 2018, CD.
- Adam Swayne, Many Dark Actors Playing Games (London: CoMA, 2017).
- Gavin Bryars, arr. Adam Swayne, The Sinking of the Titanic, performed by Southampton Concert Orchestra, CoMA and University of Chichester, Southampton Guildhall, UK (14 Apr 2012).
Public Presentations
- Adam Swayne, ‘The Musician as Entrepreneur: the example of Ferdinand Ries’s Concerto Op.123’, Financing Music in Europe from the 18th to the Early 20th Century, Centro Studi Opera Omina Luigi Boccherini, Lucca, Italy (18 Oct 2020).
- Adam Swayne, ‘Political popular music in the contemporary concert hall’, Balancing The Mix, University of Memphis, USA (30 Mar 2019).
- Adam Swayne, ‘New Music New Politics’, Artistic Research into Musical Performance, RNCM, Manchester, UK (28 Jun 2018).
- Adam Swayne, ‘Counting my Numberless Fingers’, Festival of Contemporary Music for All, Chichester, UK (3-4 Mar 2018).
Professional Activity
- Riot Ensemble: Pianist (since 2009), co-Artistic Director (since 2023)
- Competition Juries: BBC Young Musician of the Year (2022), EPTA National Piano Competition (2024)
- Masterclasses: Leeds Conservatoire (2021), University of Manchester (2024)
- CoMA (Contemporary Music for All): Music Director for Sussex Ensemble (2008-2017) and Conductor of National Ensembles (2012-2014)
- Leeds Conservatoire: Specialist External Examiner (from 2021)
- Royal College of Music: External Examiner for MMus and Artist Diploma Programmes (from 2024)
- University of Essex: External Examiner (2011-2014)
