Roderick Swanston MA MusB FRCM FRCO GRSM LRAM is a freelance lecturer, writer and broadcaster. He has lectured extensively in Europe, Asia, United States and Africa.

He is a co-founder of the London Song Circle, the English music lecturer for the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland and Artistic Director of the Austro-Hungarian Music Festival. He lectures part-time at Imperial College, London and Birkbeck College, University of London and is a popular speaker on cultural holidays where he is known for combining immense learning with with and enthusiasm.

In 1995 and 1999 he was a Visiting Professor in music at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA.

In 2004 he took early retirement from the Royal College of Music where he had taught for twenty-seven years, latterly as the Reader in Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies.