Adam Swanson, who currently attends Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, is rapidly becoming known as one of the world’s foremost performers and historians of ragtime and early American popular music. Although he is only twenty-one years old, he has been a featured performer and lecturer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States. Adam is the youngest three-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, held in Peoria, Illinois. In 2007, he appeared alongside the late John Arpin at the Bohem Ragtime and Jazz Festival in the Republic of Hungary and has also toured Switzerland. Adam made his New York debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of nineteen, where he performed with multi-platinum-selling artist Michael Feinstein. Recently, Adam was invited to perform at the prestigious Cinecon Classic Film Festival at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. He has had the opportunity to meet and perform for such stars as Rose Marie (The Dick Van Dyke Show), ragtime pianist Max Morath, child star Jane Withers, film critic Leonard Maltin, and noted Disney/Hollywood composer Richard M. Sherman (Mary Poppins). In November, Adam will be making his first appearance at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington, D.C.

Adam enjoys working with other musicians and has recorded albums with pianist Frederick Hodges, former rock star Ian Whitcomb, and legendary 1950s pianist and recording artist Johnny Maddox, who is one of Adam’s greatest influences. Adam performs every summer in the Diamond Belle Saloon at the historic Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado, where he is the musical director for the annual Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival, which he helped establish in 2013. He has studied piano with Waleed Howrani, a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory, and is now in his fourth year of college under the tutelage of Dr. Lisa Campi, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. Adam is also an avid rail-fan, and he collects antique sheet music, records, and piano rolls. His CDs are available at cdbaby.com. Visit Adam online: www.adamgswanson.com.