Originally hailing from Seattle, Meghan Swartz has made a name for herself in New Orleans as one of the city’s most sought-after and respected pianists, songwriters and music instructors. 

Meghan’s propelling sense of groove has paved her path to many of the bands she currently works with—Leroy Jones, Mark Braud, and Charlie Gabriel’s Preservation Hall All-Stars. Her harmonic sensitivity and fluid phrasing give listeners a window into her honesty and soulful musical sensibilities.  

She has performed with an array of jazz luminaries, including Ernestine Anderson, Jimmy Heath, Nicholas Payton, Ingrid Jensen, Wynton Marsalis, and Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson. While the majority of her performances are in New Orleans, she has performed at such international festivals as the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz a Vienne, and the Bourbon Festival Paraty. Nationally, she has performed at Benaroya Hall, Lincoln Center, Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, the New Orleans Superdome, among other venues. 

Meghan’s passion for songwriting shines throughout her compositions and performances. This passion has translated into co-founding Old Saw Music, her sync library for film, television and advertising music. Meghan is the recipient of the ASCAP Louis Armstrong Scholar jazz composition award, as well as the Ernest O. and Shirley N. Svenson Jazz Composition Award. Her songs can be heard in several episodes of the television show NCIS: New Orleans. 

Alongside performing and composing, Meghan has served on the faculty of the Don Jamison Heritage School of Music, and she has developed extensive arrangements and educational materials for the Preservation Hall Foundation's free k-12 online lessons. She has a full studio of private piano students, where she teaches jazz and pop styles through theory, technique, and creative expression exercises. 

She can be currently seen performing weekly at Preservation Hall and the Palm Court Jazz Café.

In 2023, she co-founded Old Saw Music, a New Orleans-based production music library for television, film and advertising.