Mark Swed

Mark Swed was born {{circa|1945}} and attended the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in music, and Mills College, receiving a Master of Arts. He was chief music critic at numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The Wall Street Journal and 7 Days. In addition, he has written other music criticism for a variety of publications,{{cite news |title=Mark Swed |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/people/mark-swed |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127030645/https://www.latimes.com/people/mark-swed |url-status=live }} including BBC Music, Gramophone, Musical America, Opera News, Schwann-Opus, Stagebill, The Economist, The New York Times and The New Yorker.{{cite web |title=Mark Swed |publisher=University of Southern California |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/laih/fellow-roster.cfm?fellowId=103 |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127103839/https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/laih/fellow-roster.cfm?fellowId=103 |url-status=live }} Interested in contemporary classical music early on, Swed edited the 20th-century classical music section of The Musical Quarterly from 1992 to 2000. He wrote substantial commentary—described by Grove Music Online as a "book-length text"—for The Orchestra, a well-received iPad application that featured Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra with autoscrolling and interactive sheet music to numerous orchestral works.{{cite news |last=Service |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Service |date=7 December 2012 |title=The Orchestra: a new iPad app that strikes all the right notes |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2012/dec/07/the-orchestra-ipad-app-philharmonia |access-date=17 December 2014 |archive-date=17 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717154859/http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2012/dec/07/the-orchestra-ipad-app-philharmonia |url-status=live }} He often makes appearances on KCRW, an NPR radio station of Santa Monica College. Since 1996, he has been the chief classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times, succeeding Martin Bernheimer.{{cite news |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=1 October 2019 |title=Commentary: With withering wit, The Times' irrepressible Martin Bernheimer transformed criticism |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-01/martin-bernheimer-appreciation |access-date=4 December 2021 }} Swed is currently engaged in writing a biography of the American composer John Cage.

The recipient of numerous awards, Swed received the 1994 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, as well as a Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center. The Los Angeles Music Center and the Los Angeles Press Club have also recognized his work. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism twice, in 2007 and 2021. The 2007 nomination is described as being "For his passionate music criticism, marked by resonant writing and an ability to give life to the people behind a performance".{{cite web |title=Finalist: Mark Swed of Los Angeles Times |publisher=Pulitzer Prize |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/mark-swed |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127103846/https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/mark-swed |url-status=live }} For his 2021 nomination, the nomination was "for a series of critical essays that broke through the silence of the pandemic to recommend an eclectic array of recordings as entertainment and solace essential to the moment, drawing deep connections to seven centuries of classical music".{{cite web |title=Finalist: Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times |publisher=Pulitzer Prize |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/mark-swed-los-angeles-times |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=11 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011145811/https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/mark-swed-los-angeles-times |url-status=live }} He is a fellow at The Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences of the University of Southern California.

• {{cite book |last=Swed |first=Mark |year=1989 |title=Celebrating Twenty Five years 1964–1989 |publisher=Music Center of Los Angeles County |location=Los Angeles |oclc=25427375|ref=none}}

{{for|other articles by Mark Swed|#External links}}

• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=October 1988 |title=John Cage: A Celebration |journal=The Musical Times |volume=129 |issue=1748 |pages=516–518 |jstor=966687 |doi=10.2307/966687 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=November 1988 |title=Philip Glass's Operas |journal=The Musical Times |volume=129 |issue=1749 |pages=577–579 |jstor=966783 |doi=10.2307/966783 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=June 1989 |title=Schnabel the Composer |journal=The Musical Times |volume=130 |issue=1756 |pages=332–335 |jstor=966028 |doi=10.2307/966028 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=November 1989 |title=John Adams |journal=The Musical Times |volume=130 |issue=1761 |pages=662–664 |jstor=1193777 |doi=10.2307/1193777 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=Spring 1993 |title=John Cage: September 5, 1912-August 12, 1992 |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=132–144 |doi=10.1093/mq/77.1.132 |jstor=742432 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=Summer 1993 |title=Editor's Note to Philip Glass's "Akhnaten" |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=236–240 |doi=10.1093/mq/77.2.236 |jstor=742556 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=Spring 1994 |title=Editor's Introduction to "Synergetic Dynamics in John Cage's "Europeras 1 & 2"" |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=127–130 |doi=10.1093/mq/78.1.127 |jstor=742496 |author-mask=2 |ref=no |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=Summer 1994 |title=Editor's Introduction |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=288–289 |doi=10.1093/mq/78.2.288 |jstor=742544 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=Summer 1995 |title=Editor's Introduction |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=79 |issue=2 |pages=309–311 |doi=10.1093/mq/79.2.309 |jstor=742248 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite journal |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=Spring 1996 |title=Remembering "Modern Music" |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=80 |issue=1 |pages=58–60 |doi=10.1093/mq/80.1.58 |jstor=742528 |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite news |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=18 November 2020 |title=Philip Glass and 'Einstein on the Beach': How one opera changed everything |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-11-18/philip-glass-einstein-on-the-beach-opera |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}
• {{cite news |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=8 February 2022 |title=Appreciation: How George Crumb became one of America's most surprisingly consequential composers |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-02-08/george-crumb-composer-appreciation |author-mask=2 |ref=no }}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.latimes.com/people/mark-swed Articles by Mark Swed] in the Los Angeles Times
• {{twitter|markswed}}

{{Chief classical music critics}}

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Category:1945 births

Category:Living people

Category:American classical music critics

Category:Los Angeles Times people

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:Cage scholars

Category:Los Angeles Herald Examiner people

Category:The Wall Street Journal people

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American journalists

Category:21st-century American male writers