Matthew Neil Andrews

Music editor Matthew Neil Andrews is a writer and musician specializing in the intersection of The Weird and The Beautiful. He cut his teeth in the newsroom of the Portland State Vanguard, and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Subito, the student-run journal of PSU’s School of Music & Theater. He and his music can be reached at monogeite.bandcamp.com.

MusicWatch Monthly: Summer of feasts

June 5, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Britt Music & Arts Festival, In A Landscape, Oregon Bach Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Makrokosmos Project–plus “Celilo Falls,” esperanza spalding, two from Cascadia Composers, and the return of “Bird Songs of Opera.”

A refreshing something different: Justin Ralls on his new and improved score for ‘Turkish Rambo’

June 4, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Over a decade later, the composer – best known for his work with Opera Theater Oregon – revisits his score for the Filmusik staging of the Turkish cult film, playing for three performances this month in a House of Scordatura revival at Hollywood Theatre.

It is all one: Joe Cantrell and Nancy Ives’s “Celilo Falls” project and the Oregon Symphony

May 31, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The multimedia project – now in an expanded form with fresh orchestration, new photographs, and a plethora of Native American art and artifacts – comes to The Schnitz the first weekend of June.

Ambiguities and complexities and contradictions: Fear No Music’s all-Oregon season closes with music by Nicholas Emerson, Nancy Ives, and Dao Strom

May 23, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Diversifying and demystifying the Oregon School of Composition with FNM’s “Locally Sourced Sounds” season.

Learning to adapt: Lou Harrison’s American Gamelan arrives at Portland State University

May 22, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

One of the three existing replica sets of Harrison’s just-intoned metallophones is on loan to PSU, and will be showcased June 1 in a performance of “Suite for Violin and American Gamelan.”

A complete ecosystem of music: Discussing the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium with founder and director Dr. Robert Kyr

May 16, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The composer lays out the history, mission, and philosophy of the OBFCS, now in its 30th year bringing together composer-performers.

MusicWatch Monthly: Your friends and neighbors

May 1, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Ringdown with Third Angle, Young Composers Project, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and a whole lot more of the finest in Oregon springtime music.

No idea is too weird to be developed: A conversation with Alex Arnold of !mindparade

April 27, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The composer, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader discusses the history of his ever-morphing band and their cryptic new freak folk album “ekopsuƨqoʞɘ”.

Everything is play: Danni Lee Parpan and Caroline Shaw discuss their new Ringdown album, “Lady on the Bike”

April 22, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The electro-pop duo celebrates the upcoming release of their first album, featuring contributions from Portland band New Body Electric, with a May 1 Third Angle concert.

A noble effort: Classical Up Close enters thirteenth season

April 12, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The series of pop-up performances and full-length concerts – all free of charge, all featuring Oregon Symphony musicians – springs into action at a variety of venues this month and next.

Never stop developing: The neo-Romantic music of Andrew Lewinter

April 5, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

A conversation with the Eugene lawyer, horn player, and composer.

MusicWatch Monthly: The True True

April 1, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The new new from Ringdown, Nasalrod, Terry Longshore, All Classical Radio, Third Angle New Music, Deena Grossman, and more.

MusicWatch Monthly: The complex terrains of the human psyche

March 6, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Mizmor’s new hot sauce; Gaytheist’s super gay new album; Quadraphonnes get Moondogalicious; Song Suffragettes PNW celebrate International Women’s Day; Cascadia Composers get all jazzy.

MusicWatch Monthly: Black History Month

February 6, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

An abbreviated consideration of Black music in Oregon, from Jimmie Herrod and Darrell Grant to Machado Mijiga and esperanza spalding.

The Oregon School of Composition: A snapshot, circa early 2025

January 23, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Upcoming concerts feature Oregon composers performed by Fear No Music, Resonance Ensemble, 45th Parallel Universe, and Delgani String Quartet.

MusicWatch Monthly: The shape of things to come

January 1, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Digging the Society of Oregon Composers; toasting the Miller Foundation’s Spark Awards; representing the Lollipop Guild.

2024 in Review: The story of music – listening back, again

December 26, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

Following the theme of an intensely musical Oregon year, from parties to studios.

MusicWatch Monthly: Back to comfort and joy

December 5, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

In praise of Christmas music, from Oregon Symphony to Portland Revels.

Give thanks for the music: Another return to Bandcamp Fridays

November 28, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

A sprawling and epic yet nevertheless inherently incomplete attempt to encapsulate Oregon music via physical media available on the music industry’s greatest foe.

Composing is a kind of listening: A conversation with Deena T. Grossman

November 20, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

The Oregonian composer discusses her musical journey, her relationship with Columbia Riverkeeper, and the background and creation of her latest album, “Thrice Burned Forest.”

MusicWatch Monthly: Contentment’s numbing trap

November 5, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

“The Raven,” Witch Mountain, Shaw vs. Shaw, 45th Parallel’s Angel, Hannah Penn’s “Shakespeare Songs,” Ginette DePreist at Oregon Historical Society, and plenty more.

An expression of joy and appreciation: Jesse Preis discusses their setting of ‘The Raven’

October 31, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

The three-voice mini-opera, set for any voice type, receives its premiere at Renegade Opera’s November Artists in Conversation.

A way of making things complicated, in life and in music: Reflecting on Andy Akiho with Oregon Symphony

October 29, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

In which a music journalist and Akiho devotee returns to live music after an extended absence.

Nothing more nor less than a mask: Halloween in Portland

October 24, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

Creepy bands and tribute bands, Saloon Ensemble’s “Nitemare B4 Xmas” returns, and Third Angle does Glass’ “Dracula.”

How to evoke those kinds of imagery through sound: A conversation with composer Kimberly R. Osberg

October 17, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

The freelance composer has traveled from Wisconsin to Indiana to Texas to Oregon, bringing her Edgar Allen Poe operetta “THUMP” all the way to Raven’s Manor in Downtown Portland.

MusicWatch Monthly: The eternal hourglass of existence, from Abronia to New Wave Opera to Takács Quartet

October 10, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

In which we consider the possibility that “without music, life would be a mistake.”

Sounding together: A season’s guide to Oregon orchestras (part two, Around the State)

October 3, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

Choice selections, from Beaverton to Rogue Valley to Newport and everything in between.

Sounding together: A season’s guide to Oregon orchestras (part one, Portland)

October 3, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

Choice selections, from Oregon Symphony to Portland Baroque Orchestra and everything in between.

That soaring line: Andy Akiho with Oregon Symphony

September 26, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

The composer and steel pan player discusses his new cello concerto, to be performed in October by Jeffrey Zeigler and OSO; recent recordings with Ian Rosenbaum and Imani Winds; his roots as a second-generation Japanese-American; and the drive to keep moving forward.

This vibrant ecosystem of creativity here: Talking with Kenji Bunch about Fear No Music’s all-Oregon season

September 12, 2024Matthew Neil Andrews

The composer and artistic director discusses the roots and reasons of the new music organization’s organically audacious upcoming season.