At age 15, Jacqueline fell in love with the entrancing tunes, architectural choreographies, flowing dance style, beguiling historical dance titles (such as Dargason, Grimstock, and Mr. Isaac’s Maggot) and the welcoming community at English country dances. She threw herself into Pittsburgh’s English and international dancing, which led to her move to Boston and later studies at New England Conservatory. In Boston’s flourishing dance and music scene, she became a founding member of the Bare Necessities quartet (Kate Barnes, Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea and Jacqueline Schwab), which forged a new, American style of playing for English country dancing. They released their groundbreaking first recording in 1983; since then, they have recorded 17 dance-oriented albums and toured across the US and beyond. The quartet, with its four original members, remains active on the dance scene today. Their lilting, improvisatory, contrapuntal style has a strong sense of passion and spirit of playfulness. They draw on many musical genres (Renaissance and Baroque, jazz, blues, calypso and more) and have melded historical English dance music styles into their innovative style. Over the years, their playing has sparked many new ensembles in this growing genre.

"I first heard this recording in a dusk-lit cabin on an idyllic pond in Massachusetts and it was as if I had been transported to a magical place. Even back in the big city, this recording exudes a sense of delight and enchantment, which is a product of both the music and the talent of the musicians…(The members of Bare Necessities) are all great individual musicians, but they are somehow even better as a group. It comes from their decades of living and breathing this music together." – Elaine Bradtke re Bare Necessities Nightcap Sing Out! magazine

 While a student at New England Conservatory, Jacqueline reconstructed 16th- and 18th-c. social dances with dance history scholar Julia Sutton. Then, as a graduate student at Boston University, Jacqueline researched 18th-c. dance primary sources at libraries throughout England, and, through that, reconstructed several 18th-c. dances for recreational dancing (including Sally in Our Alley and Barbarini’s Tambourine) that remain popular today. For many years she also taught English country dancing nationwide (often leading from the piano), where she emphasized flowing movement, musical phrasing and community connection—and fun!

For decades, Jacqueline made her living as a dance musician, touring internationally with Bare Necessities and also playing for local Boston English country and other traditional dances, as well as  modern dance and ballet classes, which have brought a lilt, kinetic sensibility and spontaneity to her playing. Although Jacqueline’s music has since carried her on to new horizons, she holds dance music and its community at the heart of her music making and still loves playing for many styles of dancing, with Bare Necessities and many others. Her current immigrant concert program I Lift My Lamp draws on her years of international dancing in Pittsburgh and Boston.