Jan Swafford

Jan Swafford is an American author and composer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. His teachers included Earl Kim at Harvard, Jacob Druckman at Yale, and Betsy Jolas at Tanglewood. He has written respected musical biographies of Charles Ives, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the Vintage Guide to Classical Music and the introduction to music "Language of the Spirit." His books are widely translated, including editions in Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and Portuguese. He appeared in the award-winning 2018 German documentary The Unanswered Ives.