His music and research have been presented at festivals and conferences such as June in Buffalo, SEAMUS, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Understanding Visual Music Symposium, NoiseFloor, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest, Studio 300, Audiograft, Electroacoustic Juke Joint, College Music Society, as well as Society of Composer’s Inc. Swilley holds degrees in composition from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (DMA), Georgia State University (MM), and Valdosta State University (BM). His composition teachers have included Tayloe Harding, Mei-Fang Lin, Heinrich Taube, Stephen Taylor, Sever Tipei, Robert Scott Thompson, and Scott Wyatt. Swilley is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Ball State University.