About

Jeanne Bourgeois Swanson is Assistant Concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. She holds a doctorate in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music, a masters from Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her teachers include Charles Castleman, Almita and Roland Vamos, Kurt Sassmannshaus and Piotr Milewski. Jeanne has held orchestral positions with the Syracuse Symphony, Sarasota Opera, Utah Festival Opera, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She was Associate Concertmaster of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and has also served as Concertmaster of the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra. As a soloist, she has performed with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, Spokane Youth Symphony, Starling Chamber Orchestra (Cincinnati), as well as the West Suburban Symphony Orchestra (Chicago). Jeanne is on the faculty at Gonzaga University, North Idaho College and also enjoys teaching at the Midsummer Musical Retreat at Whitman College each summer. She released her first solo album, Song and Dance, with pianist, Marilyn Bourgeois, in 2024, and has also published a children’s music collection, Christmas Carols for the Beginning Violinist, in 2023. In her free time, Jeanne enjoys the great outdoors, cooking and traveling with her husband, double bassist, Stephen Swanson and their daughter, Roslyn.