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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: Betterment of self or world

November 6, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

In which we consider the problem of “overproduction of cultural goods” in the context of encouraging you to touch grass with Portugal. The Man, Ural Thomas and the Pain, Nasalrod, Madeline Ross, Oregon East Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Wonderly, and the Low Bar Chorale.

Keeping Portland Odd: Sounds Like Portland festival, part three

October 30, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The three-week festival of Portland music, sponsored and curated by Oregon Symphony and Gabriel Kahane, comes to a conclusion with The Decemberists, Dandy Warhols, and the complete string quartets of Caroline Shaw.

Only light can do that: Oregon Symphony and Gabriel Kahane’s Sounds Like Portland, part two

October 23, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The symphony and its Creative Chair move into the second phase of their three-week festival, featuring ChatterPDX playing Kenji Bunch, Storm Large singing Kurt Weill, Darrell Grant playing David Schiff, and Gabriel Kahane’s latest plea for intelligent empathy.

Deceptively simple but life-affirming, part one: Oregon Symphony and Gabriel Kahane present “Sounds Like Portland”

October 16, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The three week festival presents concerts featuring a wide variety of Portland musicians, from esperanza spalding to M. Ward to a long-awaited collaboration between Resonance Ensemble and Fear No Music.

MusicWatch Monthly: The beauty of the universe

October 2, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Roselit Bone, Kalakendra, Okaidja Afroso, Cascadia Composers, and a season’s worth of symphony orchestras.

An impact beyond the notes on the page: Kenji Bunch on Fear No Music’s continuing mission

September 20, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Oregon’s favorite fearless church of new music opens its season with a marathon concert reading of scores by Oregon composers.

MusicWatch Monthly: One great blooming, buzzing confusion

September 4, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

From Renegade Opera’s witch hunt through musical activism, late summer festivals, and a trio of symphonies – all just in time for the eternal return of Bandcamp’s Fee Free First Fridays.

But these are inhuman: Paul Jacobs and “The Art of Fugue” at Oregon Bach Festival

August 17, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The superlative organist, a long-time OBF favorite, tackled Bach’s late masterpiece on Central Lutheran Church’s Brombaugh organ.

Music is there to provide comfort for us: A conversation with Siletz Bay Music Festival artistic director Mei-Ting Sun

August 7, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The pianist, now in his first official year as AD, discussed this year’s festival, his history with the festival and with his predecessor Yaki Bergman, and why music is all about “sharing and enjoying.”

MusicWatch Monthly: The odd uneven time

August 1, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

From Oregon Hall of Fame inductees YOB and Quasi through Abronia and Agolloch to Montavilla Jazz Festival.

This chant of life: Craig Hella Johnson’s “Considering Matthew Shepard” at Oregon Bach Festival

July 27, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The choral superstar and OBF artistic partner led the OBF chorus and modern orchestra – along with a few hundred surprise guests – through a heartfelt performance of his exquisitely crafted “fusion oratorio.”

What do I like about this? Caroline Shaw discusses the influence of Baroque music on her “Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings”

July 8, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The composer reflects on the playfulness of Bach, Corelli, and Vivaldi–and their impact on her recent concerto, performed at Oregon Bach Festival and Chamber Music Northwest this summer.

More brilliantly shines the beauty: The “Brandenburg Concertos” in Oregon

July 8, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Shunske Sato, violinist and master of Historically Informed Practice, led a wonderfully fresh rendition of Bach’s “six concertos for several instruments” in a collaboration between Chamber Music Northwest and Oregon Bach Festival.

MusicWatch Monthly: Strong as life

July 5, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Enjoying music in the Late Anthropocene, from CMNW and OBF to Cascadia Composers.

Falling in love with music: A conversation with Sunriver Music Festival artistic director and conductor Brett Mitchell

July 3, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

Mitchell, now in his fourth season with the Central Oregon summer festival, discusses how his background as a composer informs his approach to conducting, why performing in Sunriver feels like coming home, and the immersive future of classical concerts.

The vision gets clearer when we talk about it together: Discussing music and education with Lisa Neher

June 16, 2025Matthew Neil Andrews

The singer, composer, and educator talks about her recent Oregon Music Teachers Association Composer of the Year Award, her life as a teacher, and her latest compositions.

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.