Year Honored: 2008

Birth: 1928

Born in: Woodstock, Virginia

Biography
Evelyn Dickenson Swensson was an American conductor, composer, lyricist, pianist, singer, playwright, and musical lecturer. She grew up in Virginia during the Great Depression, and “exhibited musical inclinations from infancy.” By age ten, Swensson was winning statewide piano competitions.

In 1946 she received a certification in piano from Ward-Belmont School, and a degree in Piano and Voice from Hollins College in 1949. In 1972, Swensson earned a Master of Music from Westchester University.

Swensson married Sigurd Swensson in 1949 and raised the couple's four children. The family moved frequently for her husband's work, though Swensson kept busy musically in the various communities she entered - “wherever she perceived a void in musical arts of any kind in her community, she went to work to fill it.”

After earning her master’s in music, Swensson became the first woman director of Opera Delaware and the first woman conductor of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. She has written 13 musicals for Opera Delaware's Family Opera Theatre, which have been published and performed over 700 times across the United States, as well as Canada, New Zealand, and Holland. Her musicals include “Anne of Green Gables,” “The Adventures of Beatrix Potter and her Friends,” and “The Legend of Redwall Abbey.” Swensson has worked as a conductor at numerous churches throughout the region, and since 2010 has been the conductor of the Brandywine Pops Orchestra.

She was awarded the W.W Laird Music Award, the 1989 International Reading Council Literacy Award, the 1989 Distinguished Alumni Award from West Chester University, the 2004 Outstanding Service Award from the National Opera Association, and the 2008 Sacred in Opera Award.
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Sources and Additional Readings

Awards and Spotlights. Harpeth Hall School. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.harpethhall.org/alumnae/awards-spotlights

Evelyn Dickenson Swensson. Hollins. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://www.hollins.edu/175th-anniversary/distinguished-graduates/evelyn-dickenson-swensson/

Evelyn Dickenson Swensson. prabook.com. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2022, from https://prabook.com/web/evelyn_dickenson.swensson/382862