Thom’s latest album, The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project, has won a 2012 East Coast Music Award in the Children’s Recording of the Year category.  The album was created with fellow Maritime musician, Keith Mullins. The project saw Swift and Mullins visit ten schools in ten days in Northern Alberta. Each day, they worked with a small group of students to create a song from scratch, exploring themes of love, family, strength, community and heritage. The student’s voices were recorded, followed by the songwriters’ voices and instruments to create a collection of ten original songs.   Produced by musician, Steven Bowers, along with Swift and Mullins, the recording was mixed and mastered by Dave Gunning.   Plans are underway to collaborate on a similar project with First Nations Youth in New Brunswick.

Thom will be performing with the Sistema NB Children’s Orchestra on Wednesday, April 4, from 7-9 p.m., at the Moncton High School Auditorium. The public concert is part of the New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate’s year-long public education and awareness campaign promoting the child’s right to play. The campaign launched during last November’s inaugural Children’s Rights Awareness Week, and is focused on Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: The right to rest, leisure, play, recreation, arts and culture.

“I am thrilled to share the stage with this extraordinary group of young musicians,” said Swift. “What better way to celebrate a child’s right to play than by giving them a musical instrument and a stage to show off their talents.”

The Sistema NB Children’s Orchestra is a community outreach program of the internationally acclaimed New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. It is a free, not-for-profit, after-school orchestral music program that encourages co-operation, confidence and hope for hundreds of young New Brunswickers who might otherwise never have the opportunity. This will be Swift’s first public performance with Sistema NB. For more information on Sistema NB, visit: http://www.nbyo-ojnb.ca/sistemanb

Proceeds from the show will go towards organizations dedicated to healthy child development. Show details here: thomswift.com/shows

In the midst of writing for his new album to be released this year, Thom is heading west this month to perform three shows in Alberta. He will perform at:

The Slice in Lethbridge on January, 26th
Calgary Folk Club in Calgary on January 27th
The Blackbird Coffee House in Coleman on Saturday, January 28th

More details here: thomswift.com/shows