Matthew Neil Andrews

Music editor Matthew Neil Andrews is a composer, writer, and alchemist specializing in the intersection of The Weird and The Beautiful. An incorrigible wanderer who spent his teens climbing mountains and his twenties driving 18-wheelers around the country, Matthew can often be found taking his nightly dérive walks all over whichever Oregon city he happens to be in. He and his music can be reached at monogeite.bandcamp.com.

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

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

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

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

MusicWatch Monthly: The True True

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

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

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

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

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

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

MusicWatch Monthly: Back to comfort and joy

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

Give thanks for the music: Another return to Bandcamp Fridays

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

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

“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’

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

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

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

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

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)

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)

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

That soaring line: Andy Akiho with Oregon Symphony

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

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

Bandcamp Fee Free First Friday, September 2024 edition: The trouble with music

A rant; a proposal; a consideration of the latest from Deena T. Grossman and E. Ellison.

MusicWatch Monthly: The Great Work, featuring a new season of classical music in Oregon

45th Parallel Universe’s Garden Parties, Renegade Opera’s “Batman,” Deena T. Grossman’s new album, Fear No Music’s Oregonic season, and orchestras all over the state.

MusicWatch Monthly: All summer long, music festivals in Willamette Valley, Sunriver, and Siletz Bay

Also: Fear No Music throws down the gauntlet, announcing an all-local composer season to come.

MusicWatch Monthly: Waterfront Blues & Cathedral Park Jazz & Federale & Jenny Don’t & The Spurs

Tips for staying cool during yet another apocalyptic heat wave while enjoying the best in Oregon music.

Feast of all: Makrokosmos Project, Chamber Music Northwest, Oregon Bach Festival

The end of June heralds the tenth iteration of DUO Stephanie & Saar’s modernist microfest, the 54th year of the much-loved CMNW, and another relatively Bach-light but nevertheless lovely OBF.

MusicWatch Monthly: Summer is a’coming in, sing loud, seasons end

Resonance Ensemble celebrates fifteen years, In Medio Choir sings Randall Thompson and Judy A. Rose, Oregon Symphony plays Beethoven’s Tenth, Britt Music & Arts Festival warms up, and In A Landscape gets rolling.

MusicWatch Monthly: From doom to bloom with symphony orchestras and other cover bands

The 1905 continues to reopen; Eugene Symphony performs “Star Wars” and Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony”; Major Tomboys do the Lazarus trick.

Oregon’s finest in full bloom: The 1905 re-opens, the Young Composer’s Project hears the future, and Cascadia Composers use The Force

Also: Freddie Vilches Meneses with Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Nancy Ives and Giancarlo Castro D'Addona and Sylvan Talavera with Portland Youth Philharmonic. Also also: bands, bands, bands, and more bands.