Specializing in Celtic Harp Lessons & Performance
Brendan has over a decade's experience in teaching lessons and workshops, performing, and accompaniment. He is a sought after performer specializing in background music for events: weddings, parties, fundraisers, art openings, graduations, yoga classes, spiritual events, memorials/funerals, and more, as well as adding ambience to wineries, shops, restaurants, and tasting rooms. Brendan teaches and plays in the Wine Country of Sonoma County, and serves locations including Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sonoma County musician Brendan Swift plays an original tune, "Ashes of Home", at the burn site of Santa Rosa's iconic Fountaingrove Round Barn. "Ashes of Home" is dedicated to all the lives and places lost or forever changed by the firestorms of October 2017.
Services
Music for Events
From top-notch wineries and restaurants to cozy living rooms, Brendan plays for weddings, parties, restaurants, yoga classes, art gallery shows, and all kinds of events. Celtic harp provides the ideal balance of fascination and calm: it is always pleasant but never overbearing. Whether it's an evening of candle-lit meditation or a joyful Wine Country wedding, Brendan will draw from years of experience and a massive folk repertoire to suit your occasion.
Celtic Harp Lessons
Whether you have always wanted to play harp or you just want a new way to unwind, to find community, or to connect to your heritage, Brendan can help. With a focus on aural folk music traditions, Brendan offers both group workshops and individual harp lessons for adults and kids.
Clawhammer Banjo Lessons
Brendan specializes in five-string banjo, ideal for American old-time music, and will give students a solid grounding in clawhammer technique, tune repertoire, chordal theory, and the many tunings that characterize the rich and wonderful old-time genre.
Piano Lessons
Brendan is cultivating a reputation as a powerful yet sensitive piano accompanist for fiddle and song. Whether you or your child are a beginner or a skilled player looking for some new tips, Brendan can help you develop confidence and style as an accompanist or solo pianist and introduce you to the rich world of traditional music.
"Brendan's music-making, on both harp and piano, is sensitive, eloquent, and thoughtful. He has a deep knowledge of music and takes great joy in sharing it with others. In addition, he is caring, positive, and has boundless patience: essential qualities for a teacher! I highly recommend Brendan as both a performer and teacher."
- Laura Risk, fiddler and musicologist, Montréal, Québec
“I can see, hear and feel your compassionate soul in your playing. You reassure others and subtly remove the intimidation factor by being so humble and present in the midst of your insanely powerful musicality that comes through when you are speaking with your instruments. ”
- Jasmin F., Olympia, Washington
“You did such a beautiful job at my son's wedding. You brought magic to a lovely day.”
- Nancy M., Morgan Hill, California
Watch & Listen
Brendan Swift plays a brand new original tune, "March to the Polls", followed by the great fiddler Liz Carroll's slip jig "Liam Childs". Performed at the Journey Center in Santa Rosa, California on 11/11/2018.
Brendan Swift plays a short strathspey and reel set on Celtic harp: Munlochy Bridge, West Mabou Reel, and Hull's Reel by the late, great John Morris Rankin of Cape Breton Island. Performed on a Sandpiper Silhouette at the Journey Center in Santa Rosa, California, 11/11/2018.
Excerpt of Brendan Swift playing "O'Carolan's Welcome", by the famous blind harper Turlough O'Carolan of 17th- and 18th-century Ireland. Performed in May 2018 at the Paul Mahder Gallery in Healdsburg, California on a Sandpiper Silhouette harp.
"I would highly recommend Brendan as a teacher and a performer. He is a lifelong musician who is a beautiful pianist and harpist. He is completely accomplished on both instruments and very talented. He is kind and patient in all things he does and I would love to have him as a teacher for my own children. I couldn't recommend Brendan more as a teacher."
- Cali McKasson Kovin, Principal Harpist for Symphony Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington
Reach out today!
