Featured February, 2022
Cindy’s musical education began early. Her father played guitar in local bands and taught Cindy and her siblings to play guitar, piano, and drums. “Music was always a huge part of family life.”
In fifth grade, Cindy began playing baritone, taking it on full time in seventh grade, but only after her band director bribed her with a candy bar. “I really wanted to play percussion!” She taught herself trombone that year, but her arms weren’t quite long enough to work the slide, so she stuck with the baritone.
As a freshman in Brighton, CO, she rediscovered her passion for trombone because, “I really wanted to play in jazz band, and I realized that my arms had finally grown long enough!” As a sophomore, she was first chair.
By her senior year, she was playing five different instruments (baritone, French horn, trombone, trumpet, and alto sax) in five different bands, and she directed the pit orchestra for the drama club and sang in the choir. She received the Louis Armstrong Award, the "top senior jazz award," given to only one recipient per high school, in recognition of “outstanding musical achievement and an incredible dedication” to the program.
While a student at Aims Community College in Greely, CO, Cindy played trombone in the University of Northern Colorado Pride of the Rockies Marching Band and euphonium in their concert band. As a music education major at Western State College, she played multiple instruments in multiple performing groups and cotaught band in Crested Butte. “I also had the privilege of playing euphonium, British baritone, and trombone with the Colorado Brass Band,” an elite brass-only group of players and music instructors from around the world who gather each summer in Gunnison.
A few credits short of her bachelor’s degree, she got married, started a family, and began running Avis Rental Car in Gunnison. Her job eventually brought her to Montrose, where she began teaching band at Pope John Paul Second Academy and later for Colorado West Christian School, where she still teaches. She joined the VSA Orchestra in 2009 and plays with the Backyard Brass, an amazing group of musicians comprised mainly of VSA Orchestra brass members.
All of her four children have the family knack for playing any instrument. In fact, Cindy’s oldest daughter, who as an infant accompanied Cindy to her classes and music rehearsals, began attending the prestigious Berklee School of Music in 2020. The VSA looks forward to the next generation of Swansons!