Gloria Wilson Swisher

Gloria Wilson Swisher (born March 12, 1935) was an American composer, music educator and pianist.

She died July 23, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington.

Gloria Wilson Swisher was born in Seattle, Washington.

She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle where she received a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, Mills College in Oakland, California, where she earned a Master of Music in composition and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1960.

She studied composition under John Verrall, Darius Milhaud, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson.

She was a member of The International Association of Women in Music, the Darius Milhaud Society and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

She was awarded the Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American prize for her composition Salutations for oboe and piano.

Swisher taught at Washington State University in Pullman, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Shoreline Community College (1969–1998) in Seattle, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

She was a Professor Emerita of Music at Shoreline Community College, and often performed as a duo pianist with Nancy Matesky.

She was a founding member of Ars Nova Press, Inc., a non-profit corporation that promotes and reprints the work of quality composers.

Selected works include:

Orchestral Works:

Works for large ensemble:

Masses and liturgical music:

Stage works:

Opera:

Theatre:

Works for choir:

Vocal music:

Chamber music

Works for Organ:

Works for Piano:

Swisher was the subject of a 2009 University of Washington dissertation, The choral music of Gloria Wilson Swisher, by Robert Bigley.