Jorn Swart

Jorn Swart is a pianist and composer living and performing in New York City. Known for his refined playing and emotive compositions, Jazziz Magazine wrote that Swart has “mastered the art of using a single improvised line to elicit complex emotions”.

In 2020, Swart’s solo piano project Doeke was a breakout success on Spotify, quickly reaching over 12 million streams. In 2022 he signed a record deal with Nettwerk Music Group, releasing a string of singles leading to his full album Herinner in December 2022. This year, his 2022 EP Memorie was nominated for a Libera Award for “Best Classical Record.”

Swart is also the bandleader of his unorthodox trio Malnoia that mixes jazz and chamber music and features the unusual instrumentation of piano, viola, and bass clarinet. Their debut self-titled album, released in 2017, was heralded by Downbeat Magazine as “a seamless interplay of unusual sonorities”. Their new album Hello Future (2021) is a unique hybrid of music and short stories that explore what it means to be human in the digital age, and was described by Bandcamp as “one of the most captivating recordings of the year”. Malnoia has performed onstage and on national television in the Netherlands, in Egypt’s capital Cairo and in the legendary Library of Alexandria, and at the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York.

Throughout his career, Swart has been keeping busy not only as a bandleader, but also as a Musical Director, pianist, and recording artist for many other artists.

Swart’s latest project is the website and blog Piano String Theory, where he discusses music theory, harmony, and other piano-related subjects.