Tom Swafford Quartet / John McDonald
Tom Swafford presents an afternoon concert with pianist and composer John McDonald at The Lilypad. The program opens with McDonald performing Swafford’s solo piano compositions, followed by an improvisational set featuring Swafford on violin with Brian Price, Nate McBride, and Curt Newton. The musicians will develop material from selected themes and motives in Swafford’s pieces, including piano variations on Butch Morris’s “Joann’s Green Satin Dress.”
The concert draws on Swafford’s experience performing in Butch Morris’s large ensembles and Morris’s Conduction™ approach to conducted improvisation. It also reunites Swafford with McDonald, his former composition teacher at Tufts University, and with McBride, with whom he played in a Seattle Children’s Theatre production in the late 1980s.
When: Sunday, November 15, 2026
Showtimes: Doors open at 3:00 PM, and the concert begins at 3:30 PM. The event listing schedules the program from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM.
Tickets: $15 admission
Format: Two sets in a seated concert setting. The first features John McDonald performing Swafford’s solo piano music; the second focuses on improvisations based on Swafford’s themes and motives.
Lineup: John McDonald, piano; Tom Swafford, violin; Brian Price, clarinet and saxophone; Nate McBride, bass; and Curt Newton, drums.
Featured work: The program includes piano variations on Butch Morris’s “Joann’s Green Satin Dress,” which the improvising ensemble will interpret.
Background: Swafford performed in large ensembles led by Butch Morris in 2011, where Morris combined written music with conducted improvisation. Swafford has worked in free improvisation alongside his fully notated compositions since his time at Tufts, where he studied with McDonald from 1991 to 1995. He also studied jazz piano as a teenager in Seattle, and jazz remains an influence on his compositional style.
John McDonald: McDonald is a composer, pianist, and longtime educator who recently retired after 36 years as a composition professor at Tufts University. His work includes vocal, chamber, and solo instrumental music as well as interdisciplinary projects. Before joining Tufts in 1990, he taught at Boston University, Longy School of Music, M.I.T., and the Rivers Conservatory. He was named Music Teachers National Association Composer of the Year in 2007 and served as Valentine Visiting Professor of Music at Amherst College in 2016–2017.
Tom Swafford: Born in 1972 and raised in Seattle, Swafford has lived and worked in Boston, the Bay Area, Amsterdam, and New York, and is now based in Providence, Rhode Island. He has presented his music at New York venues including Roulette Intermedium and The Stone, leads the 11-piece ensemble String Power, and performs as a composer and violinist across multiple genres. His teachers include John McDonald, Olly Wilson, and Louis Andriessen. He teaches at Roger Williams University and Rhode Island College.
Ages: All ages
Venue: The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Seating: Seated event
Genres: Classical and jazz
Accessibility: No specific accessibility information is provided.