Betsy Schwarm
Betsy Schwarm
Contributor
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BIOGRAPHY

Betsy Schwarm is a music historian based in Colorado. She serves on the music faculty of Metropolitan State University of Denver and gives pre-performance talks for Opera Colorado and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She also has a dozen years’ experience as a classical radio announcer/producer, through which she honed her music writing style to balance the interests of music professionals and the needs of casual listeners. Ms. Schwarm writes classical program notes for various organizations around the world. The domestic portion of that list includes the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Mainly Mozart of San Diego, and the Huntsville Symphony, as well as Encyclopaedia Britannica.

In addition to many hundreds of published articles on classical music, Ms. Schwarm has published two books intended to make classical music accessible for the general listener, Classical Music Insights and Operatic Insights.

Primary Contributions (254)
Ballet dancer in a pink dress, portraying Clara, gracefully holds a large Nutcracker on stage, with other dancers in pastel costumes standing in the background.
The Nutcracker, ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The last of his three ballets, it was first performed in December 1892. The story of The Nutcracker is loosely based on the E.T.A. Hoffmann fantasy story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on

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Publications (1)
Classical Music Insights Understanding and Enjoying Great Music
Classical Music Insights Understanding and Enjoying Great Music (2011)
By Betsy Schwarm
If you enjoy great music but want to know more about how it came to be the way it is - without investing time in a graduate degree - here are the background stories of over 200 great compositions. If you're only just coming to experiment with great music, here are guideposts to help you understand and enjoy what you encounter. The stories and sounds behind the scenes: welcome to Classical Music Insights.