Faculty & Staff Profile

Susan Swidnicki has been teaching music at the Beginning School since 2002. In 2020, she became the McCarthey Campus music teacher, lending her wisdom to both the beginning and lower schools. She is the director of choirs and Orff Schulwerk ensembles for children and youth at Zion Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City. Prior to teaching in the Lower School, Susan worked as a Beverly Taylor Sorenson music and movement instructor for arts integration at Canyon Rim Academy. Susan holds Kodály certification from Seattle Pacific University and finished her Orff certification at the University of Kentucky. She received multicultural music pedagogy certification through the Smithsonian Institution at the University of Washington. She has presented workshops on children’s music for the Utah Montessori Conference, Utah State University, and the University of Utah.

Susan holds degrees in oboe and oboe performance from St. Louis Conservatory of Music and the University of Utah. She serves as the principal oboist of the Ballet West Orchestra and regularly plays as an extra with the Utah Symphony. She loves good food and conversation, hiking, working in her garden, cooking, and spending time with her friends and two grown children.

Susan was the recipient of the Beginning School's 2007 Sumner Family Excellence in Teaching Award.

Read more about Susan Swidnicki in Fine Print, the magazine of Rowland Hall