Name Freda Swain | Role Composer | |
Freda Swain (1902 – 1985) was a British composer and music educator.
Contents
Biography
Freda Swain was born at Portsmouth, England. She studied with Dora Matthay and at the Royal Academy of Music with Stanford and Arthur Alexander. She earned awards including the Sullivan Prize in 1921.
In 1924 Swain began teaching at the Royal Academy, and in 1936 she founded the British Music Movement to help promote the efforts of young composers and artists. Swain married Arthur Alexander in 1921, and before World War II, the couple toured South Africa and Australia, lecturing, broadcasting and performing recitals.
Works
Swain composed a one-act opera Second Chance, but never finished a second opera, The Shadowy Waters. She also composed a piano concerto, a concertino for piano and strings and other orchestral pieces, songs and song cycles, choral and church music, two string quartets, a Suite for Six Trumpets, and a number of other chamber and instrumental pieces.
Selected works include:
Songs: