About

Misha Swersey is a New York City-based composer who strives to blend his contemporary classical style with other captivating niches and influences, including alternative, jazz and electronic music. His piano training started when he was four years old, and soon after, he enrolled in the Special Music School at Kaufman Music Center on the Upper West Side, where he studied with Natela Mchedlishvili for over thirteen years. His primary focus shifted to composition starting around high school when he enrolled in Juilliard’s pre-college composition program. His music has been performed at venues across the country, from the Walt Disney Theatre in Orlando to Le Poisson Rouge in downtown Manhattan. Musicians from internationally recognized ensembles such as Metropolis Ensemble have performed his works, as well as musicians from Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Institute, and the Orlando Philharmonic.

In 2018, he was selected a first prize winner of the National Young Composers Challenge, and has received additional honors from ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards over the years. He has also participated in festivals including highSCORE and Yellow Barn, as well as fellowships including the 2024 Norfolk New Music Workshop run by Yale School of Music. He graduated from The Juilliard School in May 2024 with a BM in composition, having studied with Eric Ewazen (pre-college), Andrew Norman, Amy Beth Kirsten. He has received additional mentorship from Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey, David Ludwig and Dimitri Tymoczko. Misha frequently performs with his sister Amira, who is a singer-songwriter and blends genres of funk, R&B and soul into her style. He is currently pursuing a masters degree at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with Oscar Bettison. Outside of music, he enjoys cooking and has been an avid skier since he was 6.