Faculty Profiles

John Swedberg leads a diverse musical career as a conductor, educator, and tenor, with a broad repertoire ranging from Renaissance to contemporary music. He recently served as the Assistant Chorus Conductor for the Carmel Bach Festival’s 2024 season, helping to prepare the Chorus for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Grete Pedersen and conducting the group in a concert of a cappella works. He is currently completing a DMA in Choral Music at the University of Illinois, where he has served as the assistant conductor of the Chamber Singers and the Varsity Men’s Glee Club. Prior to his doctoral studies. Swedberg taught high school choir, violin, and voice for several years in Michigan, where his choirs and students were consistently highly rated in competition. While in Michigan, he was also the conductor of the Troy Metro Symphony Orchestra.

Swedberg is also active as a singer, with recent performances as a tenor soloist including Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Zelenka’s Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum with the Five Cities Baroque Festival, Bruckner's Te Deum with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and Bach’s St. John Passion with the American Kantorei in St. Louis. A career highlight is singing the tenor solo from Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. As a committed ensemble singer, Swedberg has collaborated with many leading ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, and VOCES8. He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, where he was tenor section leader of the renowned Westminster Choir.

In addition to conducting, Swedberg’s academic interests include early music performance practice, music and worship, hymnology, and the choral music of colonial Brazil. He currently resides in Urbana, IL, where he enjoys reading, watching soccer and football, and especially spending time with his beautiful wife Sarah and their two children.