Keith Sweger is Professor of Bassoon in the Ball State University School of Music and is bassoonist with the Musical Arts Quintet (MAQ), faculty ensemble in residence at Ball State.  Prior to his appointment to the Ball State faculty, Sweger taught at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Dr. Sweger has been a recitalist at conferences of the International Clarinet Association, Society of Composers, Inc., College Music Society, National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, Music Teachers National Association and Music Educators National Conference as well as at colleges and universities around the country and abroad.  He recently performed and prsented masterclasses at the 2011 Asian Double Reed Association conference in Bangkok, Thailand and the 2012 Beijing International Bassoon Festival in Beijing, China.  Active in the International Double Reed Society (IDRS), Dr. Sweger is a regular performer at IDRS conferences and has served on its Executive Committee since 2006, currently holding the position of First Vice President.  Additionally, he was chair of the 2008 and 2010 Gillet-Fox International Bassoon Competition and hosted the 2006 IDRS conference on the Ball State University campus.

His recording credits include the CDs Songs of Madness and Sorrow, On the Beach At Night, Expressions in Units, Christmas Lights and August Was Foggy. The recent Albany Records release by Sweger and the MAQ, American Breeze, has been received with critical acclaim.  Partially funded by an NEA grant, the CD includes works by American composers Bruce Adolphe, Amy Beach, Jenni Brandon, Jennifer Higdon, David Maslanka and Steven Stucky.

Strongly committed to teaching, he is in demand as a clinician and guest teacher at colleges and universities and at summer festivals and camps.  Students of Dr. Sweger are playing in orchestras and teaching in universities, colleges and public schools around the United States. His undergraduate students have been accepted into graduate programs at Rice, Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Peabody, McGill, Michigan, San Francisco Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Mannes School of Music and others.  His students have been selected to attend the Tanglewood, Aspen, Sarasota, Kent Blossom, Texas, Brevard, Eastern, Opera in the Ozarks, Manchester, Bowdoin and Penn’s Woods Music Festivals.  Dr. Sweger was named the recipient of the 2007 College of Fine Arts Dean’s Teaching and the 2008 Indiana Music Educators Association (IMEA) Outstanding University Music Educator.

Dr. Sweger earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bowling Green State University and Lebanon Valley College.  His primary teachers include Richard Lottridge and Robert J. Moore.  Dr. Sweger plays a Fox 201 bassoon.