Solon Snider Sway
is a composer/lyricist/librettist, music director, conductor, singer, actor, accompanist, arranger, and educator. He serves on the full-time faculty at Princeton University as Lecturer in Music Directing and Choral Programs in a joint appointment between The Lewis Center for the Arts and the Department of Music. He is the Founding Director of the Princeton Playhouse Ensembles (consisting of the Playhouse Choir and Playhouse Orchestra) and directs the Trenton Youth Singers through Trenton Arts at Princeton. As a conductor and ensemble director, Solon aims to facilitate creative and welcoming communities full of experimentation, growth, wonder, and imagination!
Solon works as a Music Director & Conductor for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Regional events and shows. Recent selected projects include Second Stage’s 2022 Gala, The Winter’s Tale (Princeton University), The Catacombs (by TONY-nominated Larry Kirwan) , The Shape of a Child (Avaloch Music Institute), The Hello Girls (Princeton University), Sondheim on Sondheim and No for An Answer (Theater 2020), The Fantasticks (Infinity Theatre Company), Matilda (Ghostlight Theater Camp), Romeo and Juliet (Saratoga Performing Arts Center), and Snow White (Ragtag Theatre). Solon has also served as a Music Director/Pianist for artists ranging from Broadway’s Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mykal Kilgore, Brittney Mack, Will Roland, and Andrew Barth Feldman to Billy Joel, most recently appearing as “1990s Billy Joel” in the official music video for Billy Joel’s 2024 single “Turn the Lights Back On.”
Recent composition and writing credits include Thebes (Rattlestick Theater and Quinnipiac University), The Swallow and the Tomcat (Yale Summer Cabaret’s “Verano Season”), The Tempest (Yale School of Drama), Thank You for Trying (United Solo), Crescent City Baby (Yale University), and Cupidity (Yale University). Solon's original concert music has been performed by the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, The Baltimore Choral Arts Society, UMBC’S RUCKUS Ensemble, The Whiffenpoofs, The Walden School Players, The Peabody Preparatory Percussion Ensemble, and more. He has also written and arranged music for video games, television, choirs, and a cappella groups. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Walden School, a music education program focused on innovative and inclusive music composition/improvisation pedagogy and on modeling community building through music.
Solon previously taught music and theater at The Dalton School After-School Program and has given lectures and full-length concerts on American music history through the Road Scholars Program. He teaches voice, piano, and musicianship lessons through his private studio and can often be found playing piano for ensembles and events around NYC. He has been an improv pianist for The Story Pirates comedy group and an accompanist, vocalist, and arranger with The Young People’s Chorus of NYC.
Solon holds a B.A. in Music (Intensive) and Theatre Studies, with distinction in both majors, from Yale University. At Yale, he studied music theatre composition with Jeanine Tesori, Scott Frankel, and Josh Rosenblum, lyric writing with Michael Korie, and libretto writing with Marsha Norman. He also served as music director for The Duke’s Men of Yale and the world-renowned Yale Whiffenpoofs, with whom he produced the CARA-nominated album, “On the Bumpy Road.” Solon lives with his spouse and frequent collaborator Emma H. Sway in New York City.
