Biography

Pianist Lois Svard has received critical acclaim for her performances and recordings of contemporary piano music. Her affinity for American experimental music has led her to commission, premiere, and record works by many experimental composers such as Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, William Duckworth, Elodie Lauten, Kyle Gann, Jerry Hunt and Kirk Nurock.   Her recent DVD of Annea Lockwood's prepared piano work Ear-Walking Woman, released by Innovera Studios, has been called "fascinating," "irresistible," "full of subtleties," and "a superb way to experience Lockwood's work."   Svard has recorded for Innovera Studios and Lovely Music, Ltd.

Svard has performed throughout the US and in Europe. Her performances often celebrate the avant-garde in piano music, whether in the music of Franz Liszt in the nineteenth century, or in more recent works using multimedia, prepared piano, digital keyboard or microtonal tunings. During 2002-2003, Svard was named Joan C. Edwards Visiting Distinguished Professor of the Arts at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.    Also in 2003, she received a Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in the category "Arts Commentary - Perspectives on the Arts." In addition to performing as a soloist, Svard has appeared with Chamber groups such as the Cassatt String Quartet, and with dancer Peter Boal, former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.

Svard is a tenured member of the faculty at Bucknell University where, in addition to teaching piano, she has also designed and taught interdisciplinary courses on the creative process and on the culture of creativity. Her research in creativity has led her to explore the correlation of hemisphericity, or the preference for processing with either the right or left hemisphere, with the study and performance of music.   Results of this research have been presented both at music and neuroscience conferences.  

Svard holds a doctorate in piano performance from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.