Jacqueline Schwab (Photo © Daniel B. Friedman)

From the soundtracks of Ken Burns’ documentaries, including his Grammy-winning Civil War, Baseball, Lewis and Clark, and Mark Twain, to the PBS American Roots special with The American Pops Orchestra, pianist Jacqueline Schwab is known for evoking the American musical past, but in a fresh, personal way. She has performed at the White House for President Clinton, and she has accompanied Scottish singer Jean Redpath on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and on CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman.

In concert, Jacqueline enjoys sharing her wide repertoire of familiar old tunes, what Mark Twain would have called “remembrancers,” and speaking about the power of music to transport us into our own past and on to new horizons. She spins musical stories out of the multicultural strands woven into the American quilt. Her playing can evoke an 18th-c. ballroom, an Appalachian ballad on the front porch, a Civil War-era parlor, a gospel church, a ragtime piano bar and a bluesy nightclub—as well as a fin-du-siecle Parisian café, a 1915 Brazilian dance hall, a ceilidh in the Scottish Highlands, a Jewish wedding and more. In concert, her uptempo tunes have a lilting flow from her decades of improvisational playing for many genres of dancing. Her reflective solo pieces resonate with heart and breath.

Jacqueline has released six solo albums. New England Folk Almanac says that she has "... the jazz/classical improvisational spirit of Keith Jarrett and the touch of George Winston."