OUR FEATURED ARTIST AT NEW AGE CD IS: LISA SWERDLOW
Lisa Swerdlow is a pianist and composer of classical crossover, neo-classical and New Age music. Born and raised in Los Angeles, her childhood home was full of music thanks to her father’s piano, accordion, mandolin playing, and his beloved RCA record player.
Lisa began studying classical piano at the age of six, and by age sixteen she was writing and performing songs on piano and guitar. She went on to study music theory and composition at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods.
Lisa’s early musical influences range from the Classical composers to Laura Nyro, Carole King, Harry Belafonte and Burt Bacharach. Later in life, she was drawn to the piano music of Keith Jarrett, George Winston, David Lanz, Eddy Palmieri, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
In the 1970s, Lisa performed in coffee houses on Fairfax Avenue in L.A. and went on to play piano in a rock ‘n’ roll band in San Francisco. In the 1980s she performed at the West Coast Women’s Music Festival, and soon after toured Northern California with a ten-piece all women salsa band, Las Malandras. These genres have influenced her unique composing style, and Lisa has moved into more complex orchestration and arrangements in recent years.
Lisa’s solo piano compositions are featured on her debut CD Equus Rising (2017), and Voyager (2018). She followed up with Lasting Impressions (2020), and a series of singles: “Dawn Contemplation” (2020), “Still Here” (2019: This solo piano piece pays tribute to Lisa being a cancer survivor), “Carousel of Life” (2020), and “All Is Not Lost,” which released August 13, 2021. In 2022 and early 2023 Lisa released several singles: “A Rhapsody Lives in You,” November Moon, and Finding My Way.
Her recent EP project, the fully orchestrated Coming to America Concerto, released on September 17, 2021 and is an homage to her grandparents who immigrated from Russia to America in the early 1900s.
Swerdlow’s album release, Through It All is inspired by her wife’s struggle to overcome a very rare and aggressive cancer. Their love story spanning more than 27 years can be heard throughout the album. Unfortunately, Lisa’s wife passed away in March 2023. Here is what Lisa says about the first song on the album, “A Rhapsody Lives in You”:
‘We all have a song that is uniquely ours that resonates out into the universe, and this unique song dwells in our hearts and energy field and comes through in our laughter and our tears. It gives us our connection to the cosmic universe. I was inspired to compose this piece when my wife of nearly 27 years became ill with a very rare and aggressive cancer. Whenever I’d hear her laugh, I could hear her life force in music. It’s the harmony of the cosmos that connects us all. We are a song!’
Lisa has woven the poignant emotions of grief, loss, and moving forward in her album, “Spring Equinox.” Even the last song on the album, “Spring Equinox: Persephone Returns” tells the tale of love and the rebirth that is Spring.
Swerdlow’s newest release (April 25, 2025), Dancing Between Worlds, is a multifaceted tapestry woven of solo piano and piano with orchestration. It’s a reflection of resiliency and commitment to picking up the pieces of a life forever changed. . . a life that, at times, can feel tenuous and fragile after the loss of a life partner. She finishes the album on an upbeat mood with Carousel of Life, reminding us of the beauty and joy that still exists even in difficult times.
Lisa lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California with her two horses, and Tuxedo the cat. Lisa balances her time at the piano with beekeeping and organic gardening, both of which she has enjoyed doing for over 40 years.
What Dyan Garris (New Age Notes) has to say about Lisa’s music:
“There is always something very authentic and poignant about Lisa Swerdlow’s piano playing and compositions. Perhaps it is because the music pours out of her very heart. Perhaps it is because life experiences have given her a multifaceted depth. I’m not exactly sure, but all her music is extraordinarily beautiful and emotionally stirring.”
