Gloria Wilson Swisher

Gloria Wilson Swisher (March 12, 1935 – July 23, 2023) was an American composer, music educator and pianist. Biography Gloria Wilson Swisher was born in Seattle, Washington. She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle where she received a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, Mills College in Oakland, California, where she earned a Master of Music in composition, and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1960. She studied composition under John Verrall, Darius Milhaud, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson. She was a member of The International Association of Women in Music, the Darius Milhaud Society and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Swisher was awarded the Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American prize for her composition Salutations for oboe and piano. Swisher was the subject of a 2009 University of Washington dissertation, The choral music of Gloria Wilson Swisher, by Robert Bigley. Swisher taught at Washington State University in Pullman, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Shoreline Community College (1969–1998) in Seattle, and the University of Washington in Seattle. She was a Professor Emerita