Hannah Swanson

Biography

Hannah Mae Swanson is a music director, collaborative pianist, educator, and organist. Hannah is theatre and music faculty at Colorado State University, where she music directs for the theatre area and does collaborative piano work for theatre classes, lessons, and auditions.

Hannah loves music directing and the world of theatre and has experience music directing ages five to adult. At Colorado State, she music directed Into the Woods in Fall 2024 and assistant music directed Spring Awakening in Fall 2022, both under the direction of Noah Racey. She is currently music directing Peter and the Star Catcher, directed by Wesley Longacre. Hannah has co-directed four grades K-2 musicals and two grades 3-4 musicals at Trollwood Performing Arts School and she has taught and accompanied musical theatre courses at Trollwood and Lundstrum Performing Arts.

Hannah is passionate about connecting with people through music, which drew her to collaborative piano. Hannah has performed as a collaborative pianist at numerous conferences and festivals, including the Colorado Music Educators Association Conference, the North American Saxophone Alliance Regional Conference, Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, and the Minnesota and Colorado-Wyoming National Association of Teachers of Singing conferences. She has also performed and worked as a collaborative pianist at numerous universities across Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Hannah greatly enjoys working with instrumentalists but has a soft spot for coaching and accompanying vocalists in the musical theatre and classical areas.

Hannah also enjoys playing jazz piano, playing organ, and instructing piano privately. She has instructed piano at multiple music academies and schools and teaches independently. In recent years, she has directed the piano camp portion of Bemidji MusiCamp as the sole instructor of piano.

Hannah has a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano Performance from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from North Dakota State University. Hannah is currently based in Fort Collins, CO. In addition to her work at Colorado State, Hannah works as a freelance piano instructor and serves on the Bemidji MusiCamp board of directors. Hannah splits her time between her adventures in the realms of music and theatre and spending quality time with her cat Cosmos.