Miles Swaminathan - 2024 Award Winner 

Kansas City pianist Miles Swaminathan, won his first piano scholarship at the age of 11. Since that time, he has performed in numerous chamber music festivals, summer programs, attended the Indiana University Piano Academy from 2016 through 2019 as a merit scholar, and the 2020 Curtis Institute of Music’s virtual Young Artist Summer Program. In addition, he has won several competitions and performed throughout the Midwest. His early teachers were Dr. Robert Weirich and Karen Kushner.

Currently a sophomore, Swaminathan is pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and working on a minor in composition. At Jacobs, he has premiered instrumental works and has performed in several solo, chamber, and large ensemble settings. In January 2023, Swaminathan was chosen to perform Debussy preludes in the French Art Song “Mélodie” interdisciplinary workshop series led by world renowned French Baritone François Le Roux, as well as in the series’ final concert at Auer Hall the following month. In March 2023, Swaminathan performed a one-hour solo piano recital at the Jacobs School of Music’s Recital Hall. He also performed Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with piano accompaniment in Spring 2023.

In July 2023, he attended the Borromeo Music Festival in Altdorf, Switzerland, where he performed in a master class taught by Angela Cheng, a solo recital, a duet with a cellist, and a chamber group. In December 2023, he premiered his first piano trio original composition “What Lay Beyond the Dark and Desolate Lands” for violin, cello, and piano.

Swaminathan began 2024 as the winner of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s Florence Price Piano Concerto Competition. Recently he was named winner of the 2024 Artist Presentation Society competition. For the fall 2024 semester, he will be studying abroad at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria . Visit pianomiles.com to learn more about Swaminathan and his upcoming performances.