Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

Susan Swaney serves as an adjunct faculty member in the IU Musical Theatre B.F.A. program, where she teaches studio voice lessons.

Swaney has been musical director for West Side Story, Les Miserables, My Fair Lady, and was vocal director for Next to Normal, The Wizard of Oz, and several children’s shows for Constellation Stage and Screen. She conducted IU Ballet's production of Twyla Tharp's Sweet Fields and Pirates of Penzance for IU Theatre (featuring Elizabeth Stanley as Mabel); and she was vocal coach for the midwest tour of John Mellencamp and Stephen King's musical, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.

Swaney is Artistic Director of Voces Novae chamber choir, which has received national attention for its thought-provoking programs, including their recent commission, Vonnegut: Requiem; and she has been Music Director of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington for 30 years, where she has built a fine 60-voice choir and made music part of an active social justice outreach program.

She has performed lead roles in Candide, Fiddler on the Roof (with Giorgio Tozzi as Tevye), Ghosts of Versailles, Nixon in China, and Les Noces, and with Aguava New Music Studio at the Tempus Fugit Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel; the Microtonal Festival in New York City; the Library of Congress in Washington, and Festival Cervantino in Mexico. She can be heard singing backup on John Mellencamp's single "Thank You," and she played the role of Florence Foster Jenkins (opposite Ray Fellman) in Cardinal Stage Company's production of Souvenir.