About Swallow Hill Music

Concerts • Classes • Community

Founded in 1979, Swallow Hill Music is a Denver-based 501(c)(3) organization that enriches the community by operating a music school seven days a week, providing music therapy, educating through community outreach, and producing concerts at three venues at its Broadway & Yale location. In addition, Swallow Hill produces events throughout the metro area including summer concert series at Denver Botanic Gardens and Four Mile Historic Park.

As an SCFD Tier II organization with a $5 million annual budget, Swallow Hill is a nationally-revered hub for concerts, classes, and community, and is a recipient of both the Mayor’s and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and an inductee of the Colorado Music Hall of Fame and Folk Alliance International’s Business Lifetime Achievement awards.

Have you seen our 2024-2026 Strategic Plan?

This new plan charts a course for a dynamic future for Swallow Hill’s next three years with new mission, vision, and values statements and key strategic priorities.

see the plan here

Concerts & Events

We produce family-friendly live and live-streamed concerts from local to international acts, as well as community events like open mics. Musical genres produced on our stages include Americana and roots, as well as singer-songwriters, world music, rock, bluegrass, classical, country, jazz, blues, and spoken word. We are the producing partner for concerts at Denver Botanic Gardens, Four Mile Historic Park, the Butterfly Pavilion, the Clyfford Still Museum, and various music venues.

A woman plays banjo in a group music class at Swallow Hill Music

Music Classes

We’re the country’s second largest acoustic music school, providing in-person and online private lessons and classes. Our teachers, all professional musicians, teach in an experiential style and specialize in stringed instruments, percussion, piano, and voice. We teach all age groups, and our students range from beginners to accomplished musicians who are honing their skills. We teach a wide variety of genres, including Americana and roots, bluegrass, folk, world music, jazz, blues, rock, country, and pop.

Instructor Adolfo Romero teaches a Little Swallows Early Childhood Education music class at an underresourced Denver metro area school

Community Outreach

Because we’re passionate about making music accessible, we offer music education and experiences in under-resourced communities. Our flagship early education program “Little Swallows” is provided for students across the city. Our programming also includes Little Swallows ECE music education for preschoolers, workshops and interactive performances in K-12 schools, and music therapy for our aging population, veterans, and people living with developmental or mental health challenges.

Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission

To build community through music performance, education, and outreach

Vision

To be recognized as a community leader for accessible discovery and appreciation of music

Values

Inclusion, Creativity, and Growth

Swallow Hill’s History

Founded in 1979, Swallow Hill Music began as an outgrowth of the Denver Folklore Center, a music store in Denver’s Swallow Hill neighborhood that offered music lessons and performances to the community in the 1960s and 1970s.

When the Folklore Center closed temporarily in the late 1970s, a group of committed volunteers formed Swallow Hill Music as a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “bring the joy of music to life every day.” Since then, we have become a cultural asset and a distinct thread in Colorado’s musical fabric.

Annual Reports