© Luca Concas
The Swingles
Evolution
Federica Basile, Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson, Imogen Parry, Oliver Griffiths,
Jon Smith, Jamie Wright, Edward Randell
Back in the early 1960s, American singer Ward Swingle assembled a vocal group to perform Bach’s music with a jazz swing. This resulted in Jazz Sébastien Bach, which earned the Swingles Singers international fame: not only in the field of “art music” (their memorable collaboration with Berio dates back to 1968, when the composer had them in mind for his Symphony for orchestra and eight voices,premièred with the New York Philharmonic), but also in the field of “popular” music (one of their early hits was Bach’s ‘Air on the G string’, the theme tune to the popular Italian TV show Quark). The line-up has been renewed over time, the name was shortened to The Swingles, but the group still mesmerises audiences with a wide range of styles, from contemporary to classic, pop, folk and jazz.
