Miles Swaminathan, 20, has been studying the piano for thirteen years. Since winning his first piano scholarship at the age of 11, he has participated in Chamber Music Festivals prior to his teens, attended the Indiana University Piano Academy from 2016 through 2019 as a merit scholar, and the 2020 Curtis Institute of Music’s virtual Young Artist Summer Program.

Since his public debut in 2018, he has given additional solo recitals, performed at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Summer Program honors recitals, and was also invited to do a live broadcast on Kansas Public Radio prior to the pandemic. He has won first prize in local Piano Competitions, with special recognition for both artistry and technique. In both 2019 and 2020 he won the MTNA Senior Piano competition for the State of Kansas. Each time he was named the alternate winner for the West Central Division. Miles has also performed with the Midwest Chamber Ensemble in Fall of 2021.

In May of 2022, Miles, a City, State, and Regional Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Good Citizen Scholarship winner, as well as a two-time President’s volunteer Service Gold Award winner, graduated from Olathe Northwest High school, and earned his Endorsement with High Honors in the District’s 21st Century Engineering Academy.

A National Merit Commended student, Miles studied Piano with Dr. Robert Weirich for 4 years and with Karen Kushner for 3 years prior to that. A returning performer at Kansas Public Radio post-pandemic, Miles, currently a Sophomore at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, as a recipient of both the IU Hutton Honors Scholarship and the Premier Young Artist Award, is working towards his Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance, studying with Professor Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and pursuing a minor in composition. During his Freshman year, Miles served as the President of the IU Performing Arts Living Learning Community, and he served on the Leadership Board of the Hutton Honors Council Association as the Co-President of Communications for the Read/Wells Residential Council. In January 2023, Miles was chosen to perform Debussy preludes in the French Art Song “Mélodie” interdisciplinary workshop series led by world renowned French Baritone François Le Roux, as well as in the series’ final concert at Auer Hall the following month. In February 2023, Miles was announced the winner of the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Competition for Undergraduate Pianists, and in the following month, he performed a one-hour solo piano recital at the Jacobs School of Music’s Recital Hall. He also learned Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performing it with piano accompaniment in Spring 2023. Miles returned to perform for Kansas Public Radio and the Charlotte House Series in early June 2023, and attended the Borromeo Music Festival in Altdorf, Switzerland in July 2023 and performed in a master class taught by Angela Cheng, solo recital, duet with a Cellist, and chamber group settings, including two Piano Quintets. In December of 2023, Miles premiered his first Piano Trio composition “What Lay Beyond the Dark and Desolate Lands” he wrote for Violin, Cello, and Piano. Miles kick started 2024 as the winner of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s Florence Price Piano Concerto Competition and he performed this concerto with IU JSOM’s University Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Thomas Wilkins on February 21st, 2024 at the Musical Arts Center. A third place winner for the Adult Original Composition category of the 2024 Music International Grand Prix for his Piano Trio composition held in New York City, NY, Miles is currently studying with Austrian Classical Pianist, Christopher Hinterhuber, Professor of Piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, for his Fall 2024 semester. As the current winner of the 2024 Artist Presentation Society competition for Piano, Miles will be performing a solo recital in St. Louis in February 2025, in addition to a sixth appearance at Kansas Public Radio in early January 2025.