Email: lswinden@gmail.com
Praised for “her sweet and distinct tone…breathtaking in colour” (Whole Note) Dr. Laurel Swinden has been an invited performer and teacher in Argentina, Peru, Belgium, Mexico, Puerto Rico and China. She has performed throughout the United States and Canada as a soloist and as a member of the NAFTA Duo and PanAmerican Flute Trio.
Dr. Swinden’s two Celebrating Women! recordings with pianist Stephanie Mara can be heard on Spotify, Naxos and CBC Music. As part of the Flute New Music Consortium, Laurel co-commissions and premieres new works for flute. She is the Principal Flute of the Stratford Symphony Orchestra, Associate Principal Flute/Piccolo of the Scarborough Philharmonic and has performed with the New World Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Symphony of the Americas and with various orchestras throughout southwestern Ontario, Canada.
A dedicated teacher, Dr. Swinden has 30 years of experience teaching university flute students and serves on the National Flute Association Pedagogy Committee. Dr. Swinden is an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and adjudicates at festivals across North and South America.
Laurel earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto, where she studied with Toronto Symphony Principal Flute emeritus Nora Shulman, and traverso with Alison Melville. Dr. Swinden’s training also includes traverso study at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, performance studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Harid Conservatory and traditional music study at the Boxwood festival. She holds a Masters Degree in Flute Performance and Honours Bachelor of Music Performance from Western University.