Adjunct Instructor of Music
434.544.8344
Tenor Christopher Swanson has been teaching applied voice as a member of the adjunct graduate music faculty at Lynchburg College since 2007.
He has performed leading roles in such operas as The Turn of the Screw, The Rake’s Progress, Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, Robert Ward’s The Crucible and numerous operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan. He has also performed as soloist in several Bach cantatas, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, Handel’s Saul and Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Verdi’s Requiem. Christopher is featured on the 2000 Newport Classics release of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida as well as a 2003 recording of John Eccles’s opera Semele, the first complete recording of the opera. As a recitalist, Christopher has given programs across North America in Canada and Italy. He specializes in the Baroque vocal literature, German Lieder, and the Art Songs of Benjamin Britten.
Dr. Swanson holds degrees in music from Michigan State University and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has a Doctorate in Music from Florida State University. His doctoral treatise is titled: “The Voice of the New Renaissance: The Premiere Performances of Sir Peter Pears.”
A Michigan native, Christopher now lives in Farmville, Virginia with his wife Jennifer and their three children Ellie, Abigail, and Charles. Dr. Swanson is an Assistant Professor of Music at Longwood University.