Daniel Swift

Swift, Daniel

Daniel Swift. Conductor, musicologist, b Shawinigan, Que, 14 Jul 1950; Baccalauréat spécialisé en lettres, French literature (UQTR) 1973, BA (Laval) 1977, MA (Laval) 1986. He studied oboe at the Cons de musique at Trois Rivières, music history and musicology at Laval University, and conducting in Paris with Pierre Dervaux and Jean-Pierre Jacquillat. He was music director of the Trois-Rivières Instrumental Ensemble, the Laval University Chamber Orchestra, the instrumental ensemble of JMC (YMC), and principal guest conductor of the Assn de musique actuelle de Québec. He won the Heinz Unger Award in 1982, and participated in the RCMT conductors' workshop 1982-3. He was apprentice conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic and assistant conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra before becoming conductor and music director of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra in 1984. He has been guest conductor with orchestras in Canada, the USA, and Europe. Swift has published articles in Canadian and French journals on the French repertoire, his special interest. He has pioneered in North America the work of French composer Henri Sauguet, whose music was featured in a CBC Vancouver Orchestra performance conducted by Swift in 1988. In 1989 he conducted in Paris and New York revivals of Le Gendarme Incompris, Francis Poulenc's musical play with text by Jean Cocteau, thought lost but rediscovered by Swift during research for his master's degree. He has prepared a scholarly edition of that work for publication in France.