About Adam
- Piano teaching, auditioning and assessing
- School of Keyboard Studies activities
- Contemporary music
- Research
- PhD supervision and examining
Pianist, composer and musicologist Dr Adam Swayne has been working at the forefront of performance and research for several years.
Having gained his doctorate as a Fulbright Scholar in the USA, his solo recordings focus on societal issues in North American culture. 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 … flamboyant … 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 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. He has since commissioned a number of works exploring music and commemoration, and a book chapter for Routledge is currently in progress.
Adam’s musicological interests focus on the performance and culture surrounding the nineteenth century concerto and include (re)discovery of works by German composer Ferdinand Ries. His doctoral thesis was an edition and commentary of Ries’s Piano Concerto No.3 Op.55, and in 2026 A-R Editions published a newly discovered first version of Ries’s Piano Concerto No.6 Op.123.
As the pianist for the Riot Ensemble, Adam performs several premieres every year at major international festivals. He has worked with all the major composers of our times. 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’.
Research
Current and Future Research
Adam 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 undertake commemoration, 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’.
Adam is also a musicologist specialising in 19th century concertos. His edition and commentary of the previously unseen first version of Ferdinand Ries’s Op.123 Piano Concerto (1806) is 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.
As pianist 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).
Research Areas
- Music and Commemoration
- Ferdinand Ries and Music of the Nineteenth Cenury
- Contemporary Music: Premieres and Practice
- Music and Society
External Research Roles
- Pianist, Riot Ensemble (2009 – present)
- Head of Chamber Music and Senior Lecturer, University of Chichester (2007 – 2017)
- Piano Tutor, Junior Department, Royal Academy of Music (2006 – 2017)
Funded Research Projects
Siemens Foundation: Riot Ensemble were awarded the inaugural Ensemble Prize.
Arts Council England
Garfield Weston Foundation
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching
- Principal study piano tuition
- Contemporary piano
Postgraduate Teaching
- Principal study piano tuition
- Postgraduate mentoring
Research Supervision
Current supervision of PhDs:
- Dobromir Tsenov
- Matthew Lau
- Hwan Hee Kim
- Wenxin Luo
Research Outputs
Written Outputs
Perspectives from a Conservatoire on Editing Lesser-Known Music, 1600–1820
Glatthorn, A., Babington, A., Davies, H., O’Farrell, A.-M. & Swayne, A., 2027, (In preparation) Musicology Australia.Grand concert pour le pianoforte: First Version of Piano Concerto, Op.123
Swayne, A. & Ries, F., 12 Mar 2026, Recent Researches in Music ed. Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions. 218 p. (Recent Researches in the Music of the Early Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; vol. 101)Practice Research/Compositions
Adam Swayne performs Kevin Malone’s “Sudden Memorials”: Video Performance
Swayne, A. (Performer) & Malone, K. (Composer), 8 Sept 2026Family Silver: Composed for the 25th birthday of the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School
Swayne, A. (Composer), 12 Aug 2026Earthed
Whiteman, N. (Composer), Whiteman, N. (Performer) & Swayne, A. (Performer), 22 Feb 2024Commission and Premiere: A Self-Portrait (Couperin)
Swayne, A. (Performer) & Sergeant, M. (Composer), 20 Aug 2023Commission and Premiere: The moon is an eye is a pond and so on and so forth
Swayne, A. (Conductor) & Gísladóttir, B. (Composer), 26 Nov 2023Earthed: for piano, electronics, multimedia
Whiteman, N. (Composer) & Swayne, A. (Performer), 2023Grand concert pour le pianoforte: First performance of Ferdinand Ries’s Op.123 concerto in the original 1806 version: Adam Swayne (piano) with Musicians of All Saints, conducted by Andrew Sherwood. St Mary’s Church, Brighton
Swayne, A. (Performer), 15 Jan 20229:11/20 Memorials on the twentieth anniversary of September 11th
Swayne, A. (Performer), Malone, K. (Composer), Walwyn, K. (Composer), Del Tredici, D. (Composer), Cowell, H. (Composer) & Joplin, S. (Composer), 23 Jul 2021Professional Activity
Public Presentations and Performance
Premiere: Naomi
Swayne, A. (Performer) & Haven, J. (Composer)
9/11 Commemorative Recital
Swayne, A. (Performer)
Kings Place
Swayne, A. (Director)
CoMA Festival 2026
Swayne, A. (Organiser) & Saunders, J. (Member of programme committee)
Premiere: Wanderers
Swayne, A. (Performer) & Egan, E. (Composer)
Workshop of new works
Swayne, A. (Performer)
Milton Court/ BBC Radio 3
Swayne, A. (Performer)
PhD Supervision and Examination
Examined Yuanwei Ping: A Study of Alexis Weissenberg’s Piano Music and Arrangements, Context and Style
Swayne, A. (Examiner)
Visiting Positions
Royal College of Music
Swayne, A. (Visiting researcher)
Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts
Swayne, A. (Visiting lecturer)