Grunin Center for the Arts presents Veronica Swift on Thursday

Published by New Jersey Stage
originally published: 10/13/2026

(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Grunin Center for the Arts presents Veronica Swift on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 7:30pm. Veronica has established herself as one of her generation’s iconic voices in Jazz.

Throughout her childhood, she toured nationally with her parents (Jazz musicians Hod O’Brien and Stephanie Nakasian), singing at renowned clubs and festivals such as Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazz Standard (NYC), Jazz Showcase (Chicago), and Telluride Jazz Festival. She recorded her first album at age nine, and since then has had a career spanning two decades, which saw a 2nd place win at The 2015 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, a twice-a-year residency at Birdland Jazz Club, joining Chris Botti’s touring band, as well as touring with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and recording with Jeff Goldblum. Her 2021 album This Bitter Earth received a 5-star review and the cover of DownBeat magazine, and in 2024, she was honored with a French knighthood as Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.

While her first two releases on Mack Avenue cemented her as a master of scat improvisation and programming conceptual song cycles, her most recent self-titled album (2023) showed us that Swift’s talents and path lie in other directions than just Jazz, rather theatrical glam rock as seen with her original band DAME, which she co-founded with The Dresden Dolls’ Brian Viglione. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2022, she has pursued other projects and collaborations in the rock genre with artists like pianist Mike Garson of David Bowie, Luke Spiller of The Struts, guitarist John Notto of Dirty Honey, and The Lemon Twigs. Swift’s expansive artistic voice remains firmly intact regardless of genre.

Tickets range from $49-$59 and are available for purchase online. The Grunin Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Ocean County College (College Drive) in Toms River, New Jersey.

She continues to release Jazz music as Veronica Swift, as is evident in her 2026 album, Home, which will be released in May of this year. The album’s story takes us on Veronica’s journey from growing up on a farm in Greater Appalachian Virginia, losing her childhood home in a house fire and her father to cancer, as she catapults her Jazz career and moves to New York City, ultimately leading to her expansion of musical horizons out west where she ultimately finds love and peace as heals the wounds of her past.

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Its song selections touch on the wide spectrum of what ‘home’ means to people, whether it is where you come from, where you live, or where you see yourself in the future. Some are running from home, and some run back. With songs like “I Miss the Mountains”, “Home” from ‘The Wiz’, and “I’m Comin’ Virginia”, Swift explores longing to return to her beloved Appalachia, where Zeppelin’s Going to California, Billy Joel’s You’re my Home celebrate her new life with Brian Viglione as a Californian. The album’s epilogue, Simon and Garfunkel’s America, echoes her message on This Bitter Earth, pondering her place in the country she calls home and the complex challenges of this time as we question our roots.

It features the finest young voices in Jazz with Mathis Picard on piano, Philip Norris on bass, Kyle Poole on drums, and special guests Benny Benack III on trumpet, Dave Eggar on cello, and Phil Faconti on guitar.

The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts, located on the campus of Ocean County College, is a performing arts center that celebrates dance, theater, music, and visual art. Featuring acts from around the world, the Grunin Center offers intimate, unique performances across its Main Stage, the Gia Maione Prima Foundation Studio Theater, the OCC Black Box Theatre, and the soon-to-open Wintrode Art Gallery.

The center also hosts young performers from educational groups, including Ocean County College students in the performing arts and fine arts programs, students from the Grunin Performing Arts Academy, and Ocean County public high school students at the Ocean County Teen Arts Festival.