Calendar

Upcoming Events

Composer: She Became Fire
Join Lisa with pianist Ignacio Ojeda and flutist Emily Duncan for a program of contemporary songs about social justice, feminism, loss, and love. What is the American dream, and who is it for? Danielle Jagelski’s Gichi-mookomaan (“United States”) delves into these questions by setting interviews with citizens of the tribal nations to music. Drew Swatosh’s unaccompanied song “Riots” (poetry of Carolyn Quick) faces violent police responses to protest, while in Lisa Neher and Bea Goodwin’s Scottish-folksong-infused she conjures, a young woman seeks justice after her mother is burned at the stake but questions whether justice or revenge was truly done.

Gabriela Lena Frank’s Cuatro Canciones Andinas (Four Andean Songs) explore themes of departure, loss, and magic, setting traditional Peruvian poetry translated into Spanish by José María Arguedas. A woman explores the magic of self-healing and growth after trauma in Melissa Dunphy and Nikita Gill’s song cycle Four Poems of Nikita Gill. Volume (a world premiere on this program), words and music by Carolyn Quick evokes the freedom and joy of hair and through that, the self. And Gilbert Galindo’s ¡Víctor, Catarina!, which sets the words of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-Century Mexican nun, boldly celebrates feminism and challenges the patriarchy of Church and society.

Friday, July 5, 2024, 7:00 pm Eastern
St. John’s in the Village Episcopal Church
218 W 11th St., New York, NY 10014

Past Events

Performer: Big Mouth Society The Fruits of Our Labor
Drew performs as a singer with Big Mouth Society in The Fruits of Our Labor, “a concert of exceptional musical works by living Chinese-American composers who have moved and shaped the artistic landscape of our time. This presentation carries special meaning in Oregon, a state with a complicated and fraught history with Chinese immigrants. Audiences will be treated to music by Pulitzer Prize winners Zhou Long and Du Yun, Academy- and Grammy Award winner Tan Dun, Guggenheim Fellow Chen Yi, famed political music composer Melissa Dunphy, genre-bending genius Huang Ruo, celebrated movie- and video game composer Christopher Tin, and Big Mouth’s Artistic Director Emily Lau”
Sunday, June 16th, 2024, at 6:00 pm Pacific
Winningstad Theatre, Portland, OR
Details & Tickets

Performer: Beethoven 9
Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA in their concert of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 7pm Pacific
Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 3pm Pacific
Skyview High School, Vancouver, Washington
In-person and live-stream tickets available
Details & Tickets

Performer: Lisa Neher Music Studio Spring Recital
Drew sings Four Poems of Nikita Gill III. You Have Become A Forest by Meliisa Dunphy and “Non Piu Andrai” from Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart for the Lisa Neher Music Studio Spring Recital.
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7pm Pacific
Lydian Music Studios, 3574 SE Division St, Portland, OR 97202

Composer & Performer: From the Vault: My Favorite Things
Drew performs I Want Everything from If Only I Could Give You the Sun ith collaborative pianist Claire Forstman as part of Portland Symphonic Choir‘s recital series From the Vault. The recital is on the theme My Favorite Things and is curated by PSC soprano Abby Krawson and PSC Bass Karl Hein.
Sunday, April 20, 2024, at 6pm Pacific
Bank of Expensify, Portland, OR
Free Admission

Composer: Sam Crosby-Schmidt Master’s Voice Recital
Vocalist Sam Crosby-Schmidt performs I Want Everything from If Only I Could Give You the Sun on their master’s voice recital which features music by historically excluded composers.
Saturday, April 6, 2024, at 7pm Eastern
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Boston, Massachusetts
Details and Livestream

Performer: From the Vault: I’ve Got a Secret
Drew performs I Want to Be Soft by Lisa Neher with collaborative pianist Claire Forstman as part of Portland Symphonic Choir‘s new recital series From the Vault. The first recital is on the theme I’ve Got a Secret and is curated by PSC soprano Abby Krawson.
Sunday, February 25, 2024, at 6pm Pacific
Bank of Expensify, Portland, OR
Free Admission

Performer: NATS Cascade Classical Auditions Honors Recital
Drew performs “Non Piu Andrai” from Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart with collaborative pianist Dianne Davies for NATS Cascade Classical Auditions Honors Recital.
Sunday, February 4, 2024, at 2:00pm Pacific
Portland State University Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR
Free Admission

Composer: NW ACDA Conference
Drew attends the NW ACDA conference with Raindrop New Music co-founders Carolyn Quick and Lisa Neher. This year’s conference theme is “Our Song United.”
Wednesday, January 24 – Saturday, January 27, 2023
Spokane, Washington
Details

Performer: Portland Symphonic Choir: Wintersong
Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir in their annual Wintersong concerts.
Saturday, December 2nd, at 7:30 pm Pacific, Warner Pacific University Auditorium in Portland, OR
Sunday, December 3rd, at 4:00 pm Pacific, Cedar Hills United Methodist Church in Portland, OR
Details

Composer/Performer: Big Mouth Society: Queer & Dear
Drew premieres their latest choral composition, Bloom, as part of Big Mouth Society’s Queer & Dear concerts and is a feature performer on their piece.
Saturday, September 30th, at 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Pacific
Portland Center Stage’s Ellen Bye Studio, Portland, OR
Details & Tickets

Performer: Queer Opera
Drew performs Lisa Neher’s I Want to Be Soft and JL Marlor’s Baffled for Just a Day or Two as part of the cast of this year’s Queer Opera workshop, which presents a program of staged art songs. “Queer Opera is dedicated to providing a safe stage for LGBTQIA singers and allies to tell queer stories through the traditional genre of opera. Using unconventional casting methods, roles are matched with individuals based on how they identify, rather than the gender of the role or their voice type, [and] believes that everyone’s story belongs on a stage.” (Queer Opera) 
Saturday, September 2, 2023, at 7 pm Pacific
Sunday, September 3, 2023, at 3 pm Pacific
Portland State University Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR
Details & Tickets

Composer/Performer: Portland Symphonic Choir Summer Sings: New Works Reading Session
Portland Symphonic Choir‘s Summer Sings community singing series reads Drew’s choir piece, Finding the Light, as one of the three finalists for the Portland Symphonic Choir Summers Singers New Works Competition.
Wednesday, August 16th, at 7:00 pm Pacific
Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR
Details & Tickets

Performer: Big Mouth Society Common Opus
Drew performs as a singer and percussionist with Big Mouth Society in this large-scale collaborative art project: The Common Opus, which “draws inspiration from nine expressive workshops involving 95 diverse Oregonians held during the summer of 2022” (Big Mouth Society). “Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, political upheaval, an ongoing social justice movement, and intensifying effects of climate change have deeply challenged us, individually and collectively. Some have coped in physical and emotional isolation; all have lost ties to “the commons”, a shared cultural and natural space. How can we use an innovative artistic collaborative approach to process this experience and reclaim the commons from a socially-conscious, historically-informed perspective?” 
Sunday, July 30, 2023, at 6:00 pm Pacific
Winningstad Theatre, Portland, OR
Details & Tickets

Composer/Performer: If Only I Could Give You the Sun Libretto Workshop
Composer Drew Swatosh, librettist Brian Dang, and director Melory Mirashrafi present the first workshop of Fuse Theatre Ensemble’s inaugural Atelier Festival, “If Only I Could Give You the Sun” is a one night only presentation which includes a recording of the show as presented by the Seattle Opera followed by a reading of the updated script in preparation for staging.

In a nonbinary/trans, utopic reimagining of the original myth, Icarus finds themselves entrapped in a never-ending maze haunted by an aleatoric chorus of unstable, disembodied voices. The maze beckons them to submit to the societal expectations of their body/gender or fall to their death in the same way we know the myth ends. Daedalus, shifting in and out of different roles they’ve played in Icarus’s life, pushes Icarus to take risks and figure out what they want for themselves, hoping that this time they will soar.

Saturday July 8th, at 7:30pm Pacific
Fuse Theatre Ensemble, Portland, Or
Details & Tickets

Composer/Performer: Cascadia Composers: In Good Hands
Cascadia composers will present the video premiere of Drew’s latest art song, The Rocking Chair, with a text by Carolyn Quick and composed for Edwin Johnson, a voice student of Sarah Maines.
Cascadia Composers: In Good Hands,
Saturday July 15, at 4:00pm Pacific
Portland State University Lincoln Hall Room 75, Portland, OR
Details