Phillip Swan

Phillip Swan is catalogued here as a chorus master, the person who rehearses a choir before it joins an orchestra. He is listed preparing a chorus for a Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, paired with a new commission by Autumn Maria Reed. Beyond this appearance, no verified biography is available.

This program centers on Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, a piece where an orchestra alone plays for roughly forty-five minutes before a chorus and four vocal soloists rise for the final movement, "Ode to Joy," a setting of a poem by Friedrich Schiller celebrating universal brotherhood. A chorus master's job happens mostly before the concert: teaching the choir its notes, its German text, and how to blend as one voice, so that when the conductor finally brings them in, the sound arrives fully prepared. Listeners can expect a chorus that has been drilled to sing with clarity even against a full orchestra. The evening opens with a new commission by Autumn Maria Reed, a world premiere, giving the audience a chance to hear a brand new work before the Beethoven.