ALUMNI UPDATE: SCOTT SWOPE

Posted on February 28, 2020

(PJS 1967 - 1973)

Since I was in PJS in the 1960s, my career as a musician has taken many turns. I played clarinet in PJS and majored in it at PSU, but my heart was leaning toward singing. Upon graduating in 1974, I moved to Santa Barbara to attend the Music Academy of the West’s Summer Vocal Apprentice program and study privately. I honed my stage skills in Summer Stock at Solvang in the summers of ’77 and 78’, followed by two years in the UCLA Opera Program. In 1979, I auditioned for Richard Perlman, director of the Eastman School of Music Opera Program. He offered me a place in the Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Apprentice program and recruited me to Eastman for graduate school. This gave me a springboard into the world of professional singing. During the 5 years at Eastman and Aspen I performed in over 30 opera productions.

After receiving a Masters and Doctorate in Vocal Performance in the opera program there in 1984, through a number of twists of fate, I went to Germany for further study and to establish myself as an opera singer. But after a promising start, in 1988, I was in a serious accident on my bicycle and found myself no longer able to continue in opera. I did stay with voice, however, focusing on early music and chamber music. Eventually I secured teaching posts at two universities and a local music conservatory and later became active in the German Voice Teachers Association and the European Voice Teachers Association, serving on boards of both. I remained in Germany until mandatory retirement age, when I came home to Portland in 2015 to help my family care for my aging parents, who have since passed.

Having spent most of my adult life focused on singing, I now find myself drawn back into a relationship with the clarinet. It feels challenging, having to rework discipline to practice regularly, set goals, all the things I learned in PJS. I am affiliated with PSU through their Clarinet professor, Dr. Barbara Heilmair. I had wanted to join a clarinet choir upon returning to Portland (as I had played in one in Germany for many years), but didn’t find one, so I helped found the Zephyr Clarinet Choir with a group of local clarinetists. We are now in our third season. We are giving a free concert on March 14 at PSU, in room 75, Lincoln Recital Hall, 3 pm. Zephyr is a non-audition ensemble, with 20+ members self-selecting for upper high school or college level playing.

I am also playing in the PSU Wind Symphony and the Oregon Symphonic Band. To complete the circle of learning, I participate in a clarinet pedagogy course as a subject, fulfilling a desire to reconnect with the experience of learning to play.