Lisa Swerdlow is a pianist and composer of classical crossover, neo-classical, and new age music. Born and raised in Los Angeles, her childhood home was full of music thanks to her father's piano, accordion, mandolin playing, and his beloved RCA record player.
Lisa began studying classical piano at the age of six, and by age 16, she was writing and performing songs on piano and guitar. She went on to study music theory and composition at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. Lisa's early musical influences range from Laura Nyro and Carole King to Harry Belafonte and Burt Bacharach. Later in life, she was drawn to the piano music of Keith Jarrett, David Lanz, Eddy Palmieri, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Barbara Higbie, and Mary Watkins.
In the 1970s, Lisa performed in coffee houses on Fairfax Avenue in L.A. and went on to play piano in a rock 'n' roll band in San Francisco. In the 1980s she performed at the West Coast Women's Music Festival and soon after toured Northern California with a ten-piece all-women salsa band called Las Malandras. These genres have influenced her unique composing style, and Lisa has moved into more complex orchestration and arrangements in recent years.
Lisa’s solo piano compositions are featured on her debut CD Equus Rising (2017), and Voyager (2018). She followed up with Lasting Impressions (2019) and a series of singles: “Falling Back to Earth” (2019), “DawnContemplation” (2020), “Carousel of Life” (2020), “Still Here” (2021), and the latest “All Is Not Lost” which released August 13, 2021; the latter two singles pay tribute to her triumph over cancer. Her new EP project, the fully-orchestrated Coming to America Concerto, released on September 17, 2021 and is an homage to her grandparents who immigrated from Russia to America in the early 1900’s.
Lisa lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California with her wife, Lucie, their horses, and Tuxedo the cat. Lisa balances her time at the piano with beekeeping and organic gardening, which she has enjoyed doing for over 40 years.