Biography
Ward Swingle absorbed jazz drifting in from New Orleans and other harbors while growing up in Mobile, already working as a big-band pianist by the time he finished high school. He earned his degree summa cum laude at the Cincinnati Conservatory and later traveled to France for piano lessons with Walter Gieseking once World War II had ended. There he encountered nightclub and studio singer Mimi Perrin, who recruited him into her newly formed ensemble, Les Doubles Six of Paris. The French singers explored both studio overdubbing and scat techniques, layering twelve distinct vocal parts to create their buoyant sound. That inventive approach soon led Swingle into a series of projects built around elaborate vocal settings of intricate scores. Striking out independently, he adapted the same layered method to the keyboard works of Bach, assembling a vocal group first in France and then in London that he named the Swingle Singers. The ensemble captured five Grammy awards. Operating from its London headquarters in the early seventies, the group broadened its scope to encompass avant-garde pieces alongside compositions by additional classical masters. Following ten years of concentrated work, Swingle relocated to the United States in 1984, assuming the role of musical advisor while devoting himself to guest conducting, focused workshops, and the publication of his own arrangements. In 2000 the Swingle Singers marked their thirty-seventh anniversary with performances across Europe. Recognized as an innovator in vocal methods and choral writing, he received invitations to lead the Stockholm Choir, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Dale Warland Singers, the Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, the BBC Northern Singers, and the MENC National Honors Choir in a special Kennedy Center concert. During the nineties his energies turned toward academia, where he conducted extended seminars and workshops at universities throughout North America and Europe. He settled again in France with his wife in 1994 and continued accepting arranging commissions and frequent conducting engagements. In 1999 he released the volume Swingle Singing, which traces the history of his ensembles and details the vocal techniques he created, illustrated with musical examples drawn from his scores.