Prior to his LA Times post, Swed was the chief music critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and The Wall Street Journal, and has contributed other writings to a variety of publications including The Orchestra, an iPad application.
[1] He was chief music critic at numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The Wall Street Journal and 7 Days.
[1] Since 1996, he has been the chief classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times,[2] succeeding Martin Bernheimer.
[2] The 2007 nomination is described as being "For his passionate music criticism, marked by resonant writing and an ability to give life to the people behind a performance".
[7] He is a fellow at The Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences of the University of Southern California.