Austin College Host Award-Winning Pianist from Ken Burns’ Documentary Soundtracks
Austin College and its Department of History will host Grammy Award-winning visiting artist Jacqueline Schwab on campus for two special events next week. She will be part of a discussion on Tuesday, April 5, at 4:30 p.m. in Hoxie Thompson Auditorium of Sherman Hall on “Making Music for History: A Public Interview with Jacqueline Schwab about Her Music, Ken Burns, and Other Things,” along with history faculty Light Cummins and Hunt Tooley.
Schwab also will offer a special performance “Mark Twain’s America: Vintage American Heart Songs, Dance Tunes and Community Music” Wednesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Wynne Chapel. The lecture and the concert are free and open to the public.
Schwab has provided music for more than 12 documentaries of filmmaker Ken Burns, who said of the performer, “Jacqueline Schwab brings more feeling and intensity to music than anyone I know. Her playing is insistent, physical, heartfelt, and … unusually moving.”
The artist graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she majored in piano improvisation, and she has long listened to many traditional performers out of the worldwide folk community. Drawing on the sounds of classical, traditional folk, jazz and world music, she creates evocative concert and film arrangements on vintage tunes from America, Scotland, Ireland, and beyond.
The musician has performed her solo arrangements at concerts and festivals in over 40 states throughout the U.S., including the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Ohio. She said her signature arrangements of American “heart songs” and dance tunes honor the historical, improvisational spirit of community music making but also draw on more modern sounds. Her repertoire includes 19th-century American Stephen Foster and Civil War tunes, Victorian ballroom dance tunes, hymns and spirituals, and ragtime—plus Latin waltzes and tango, World War I-era music, Billie Holiday blues, contemporary Celtic music, Eastern European klezmer music and more. She also has played at the White House and at the Smithsonian.
Austin College, a private national liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas, has earned a reputation for excellence in academic preparation, international study, pre-professional foundations, leadership development, committed faculty, and hands-on, adventurous learning opportunities. One of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives, Austin College boasts a welcoming community that embraces diversity and individuality, with more than 36 percent of students representing ethnic minorities. A residential student body of 1,250 students and a faculty of more than 100 allow a 12:1 student-faculty ratio and personalized attention. The College is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and cultivates an inclusive atmosphere that supports students’ faith journeys regardless of religious tradition. Founded in 1849, the College is the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original name and charter.