Upcoming Events

July 31 | Portland Symphonic Choir at the Portland Pickles

Friday July 31, 2026, 7pm Pacific
Lentz Park, Portland, OR

Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir in the singing of the National Anthem for the Portland Pickles “Dilly Parton Night” game.

Nov 7 & 8 | Portland Symphonic Choir & Vancouver Symphony: Verdi Requiem

Saturday, November 7, 2026, 7 pm Pacific
Sunday, November 8, 2026, 3 pm Pacific
Skyview High School, Vancouver, Washington
In-person and live-stream tickets available

Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA in their concert of the Verdi Requiem.

Dec 5 | Portland Symphonic Choir Wintersong

Saturday, December 5, 2026, 4:00 pm Pacific
First United Methodist Church
1838 SW Jefferson St,
Portland, OR

Drew performs in the Portland Symphonic Choir Wintersong concert, which includes the winning piece of the 2026 Summer Sing New Works Call for Scores.

May 22 & 23 | Portland Symphonic Choir & Vancouver Symphony: Verdi Requiem

Saturday, May 22, 2027, 7 pm Pacific
Sunday, May 23, 2027, 3 pm Pacific
Skyview High School, Vancouver, Washington
In-person and live-stream tickets available

Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA in their concert of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”

Past Events

May 29 | Vancouver School of Arts and Academics Spring Vocal Concert

Friday May 29, 2026, 7:00 pm Pacific
Vancouver School of Arts and Academics Royal Durst Theatre
3101 Main St
Vancouver, WA 98663

Join the Vancouver School of Art and Academics (VSAA) Vocal Repertory Ensemble for the world premiere of All I Can Do Is Wait for SATB choir and piano, poetry by VSAA alum Brennan Staffieri as part of the vocal music program’s spring concert. All I Can Do is Wait is an exploration of the liminal space between understanding and unknowing using the framework of the Fermi Paradox found in Brennan Lucas Stafferi’s poem Palindrome: Responses to the Fermi Paradox. According to The Planetary Society, “the Fermi Paradox is [physicist Enrico Fermi’s] general observation that the conditions for intelligent life to arise don’t seem uncommon in the Cosmos, but we don’t observe anybody out there.

May 9 | A Genderful Noise

Saturday, May 9, 2026, 1:30 pm Pacific
Messiah Lutheran Church
905 NW 94th St
Vancouver, WA 98665

Join Drew Swatosh and pianist Claire Forstman for a voice recital exploring Drew’s relationship and journey with gender. Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Che faro senza euridice (What will I do without Euridice?) from Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus & Euridice) and Carolyn Quick’s O Captain! My Captain! visit Drew’s origins with masculinity and then we say goodbye that version of themselves through Gabriel Faure’s Adieu. Next, we begin questioning and exploring femininity, softness, and vulnerability in their gender identity and expression through Drew Swatosh’s Vulnerability from the Dead Fires Anthology, Lisa Neher’s I Want to Be Soft, and Speak to Me (Talk to Me), Drew’s art song about the emotions politicized erasure aspects of people’s identity. Then, we find the courage amid fear in Melissa Dunphy’s Sorcery from Four Poems of Nikita Gill, take the leap of faith to publicly be themselves in Drew Swatosh and Brian Dang’s I Want Everything from If Only I Could Give You the Sun, and find contentment in that decision in Robert Schuman’s Mondnacht (Moonlit Night) from Liederkreis. Finally, we end with You’ll Be Back from Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda to show confidence in my gender identity and expression amid the ongoing attacks against trans and non-binary people.

April 18-19 | Vespers

Saturday, April 18, 2026, 3:00 pm & 7:30 pm Pacific
Sunday, April 19, 2026, 4:00 pm Pacific
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
12625 SW Crescent St
Beaverton, OR 97005

Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir in their performance of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers with Push/Fold Dance Company. Join us in person or via livestream for this truly interdisciplinary production. On April 18 there is a pre-show talk, and stay after each performance for a live Q&A with the directors and artists.

April 15 | New Wave Opera: Rising Tides

Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 12 pm – 1 pm Pacific
The Old Church Concert Hall and Livestreamed
Portland, OR

Hear exclusive previews from Caroline Louise Miller’s new opera Deep Water at Currents of Change, an exploration of our warming world through opera and song. Lisa performs as Bluejay in this new opera and performs additional selections from opera and art song. New Wave Opera is proud to be performing the world premiere of Deep Water in June 2026. This is your chance to be the first to hear excerpts of this compelling and timely opera. Free Admission, no advance pre-registration required.

March 29 | Lisa Neher Music Studio Spring Voice Recital

Jan 16 | New Wave Opera: Currents of Change

Complimenting selections from Deep Water are excerpts of modern operas and art songs by living composers about the climate crisis, including songs from Portland composer Drew Swatosh’s Dead Fires Anthology and NWO President Lisa Neher’s major song cycles about climate change No One Saves the Earth from Us But Us and Love in a Time of Climate Change (commissioned by Oregon Music Teachers Association for their 2025 Composer of the Year Award). “The performing arts play a crucial role in confronting the climate crisis,” says NWO President Lisa Neher. “Statistics and daily obligations can overwhelm and distract us, but the arts bring people together to pause and feel, and that shared experience drives sustained collective action.”

Friday, January 16, 2026, 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm Pacific
Portland State University Lincoln Hall

New Wave Opera presents Currents of Change, an examination of our warming world through opera, in collaboration with Portland State University’s Music @ Midday concert series. This free lunchtime concert features exclusive previews of Portland composer Caroline Louise Miller’s opera Deep Water, which NWO will premiere in June 2026. Deep Water is a post-apocalyptic fantasy opera that investigates rage, grief, play, & persistence in the face of gargantuan, destructive forces. Queer teenage companions Val & Bluejay chronicle the fall of humanity during the Anthropocene, acting as witnesses and documentarians and finding resilience through love and play. Deep Water positions 2 queer teenagers in the role of history-creation, defining what is worth preserving.

Performer: Portland Symphonic Choir Wintersong
Drew performs in the Portland Symphonic Choir Wintersong concert, which includes the winning piece of the 2025 Summer Sing New Works Call for Scores.
Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 4:00 pm Pacific
First United Methodist Church
1838 SW Jefferson St,
Portland, OR

Performer: Lisa Neher Music Studio Fall Voice Recital
Drew performs in the Lisa Neher Music Studio fall voice recital with Sequoia at the piano. Repertoire include “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and “Che faro senza euridice” from from Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck & Ranieri de’ Calzabigi.
Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific
Classic Pianos 
1010 SE Powell Blvd
Portland, OR

Composer: Opera Praktikos Spoon Theory Song Cycle
Drew Swatosh’s art song, Speak to Me (Talk to Me), will be a part of Opera Praktikos’s Spoon Theory Song Cycle, which is a program inspired by an essay written by Christine Miserandino that viscerally expresses the day-to-day  experience of being disabled using the meaphor of spoons. Opera Praktikos is NYC’s disability-affirmative opera company, and Spoon Theory Song Cycle knits spoken word with art song from living composers and librettists including Raindrop New Music Colleage Lisa Neher’s art song, I Want to Be Soft, which is quoted in Speak to Me (Talk to Me). This event will be in person and livestreamed. 
November 20, 2025 at 3pm Eastern
November 21, 2025 at 6:30pm Eastern
National Opera Center at OPERA America
New York, NY
Details & Tickets

Stagehand: New Wave Opera Presents Atoms & Artifacts
Drew volunteers to run the supertitles in the west coast premieres of two 60-minute operas, produced by New Wave Opera. Atoms & Artifacts is an exploration of the perceptions & experiences of historical women. This production features: Marie Curie Learns to Swim by Jessica Rudman & Kendra Preston Leonard and Alice Tierney by Melissa Dunphy & Jacqueline Goldfinger. 
Friday, September 19, 2025  7:30 pm Pacific
Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 7:30 pm Pacific
Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 2:00 pm Pacific – includes ASL Interpretation
University of Portland Mago Hunt Recital Hall
5000 N Willamette Blvd
Portland, OR 97203
Details and Tickets

Performer: Carmina Burana
Drew performs with Portland Symphonic Choir and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA in their concert of Carmina Burana.

Saturday, September 27, 2025 at 7pm Pacific
Sunday, September 28, 2025 at 3pm Pacific
Skyview High School, Vancouver, Washington
In-person and live-stream tickets available
Details & Tickets

Composer & Performer: Rising Together with Portland Symphonic Choir
Join us for the public concert presentation and artist talkback for Rising Together. This project is a recording project for every voice, every story, and every one of us. This project features new choral works from local composers among others, including Judy A. Rose, Jesse Preis, Drew, and guest Dareion Malone. Come and hear the stories and voices of these composers and PSC and stay for the talkback to learn more about the important role recordings have for composers.

Sunday, June 22, 2025 at 3:00 pm Pacific
12755 NW Dogwood Street
Portland, OR
Info & Tickets

Performer: Portland Symphonic Choir at the Portland Pickles
Portland Symphonic Choir sings the US national anthem at the Portland Pickles baseball game.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at 7:30 pm Pacific
Charles B. Walker Stadium at Lents Park
Portland, OR

Performer: Portland Symphonic Choir at the Portland Pickles
Portland Symphonic Choir sings the US national anthem at the Portland Pickles baseball game.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025 at 7:30 pm Pacific
Charles B. Walker Stadium at Lents Park
Portland, OR

Composer & Performer: Lisa Neher & Studio Recital
Drew performs in the Lisa Neher & Studio recital with Sequoia at the piano as part of The Old Church’s noon concert series. Repertoire includes Drew’s composition A Poem of Gratitude, text by Caroline Erdmann. Lisa will also premiere Drew’s new art song, Speak to Me (Talk to Me).

Wednesday, June 18, 2025 at 12:00 pm
The Old Church Recital Hall
Portland, OR
Info & Livestream

Performer: Mu Phi Epsilon Portland Alumni Chapter Recital
Soprano Lindsey Rae Johson will perform There is Forst and Still from the Dead Fires Anthology along with A Poem of Gratitude for Mu Phi Epsilon Portland Alumni Chapter Recital

Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 3 pm Pacific
St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church
17405 NE Glisan St,
Portland, OR 97230

Composer & Performer: Lisa Neher Music Studio Spring Voice Recital
Drew performs in the Lisa Neher Music Studio spring voice recital with Sequoia at the piano. Repertoire includes Socery from Four Poems of Nikita Gill by Melissa Dunphy and I Want Everything from If Only I Could Give You the Sun, libretto by Brian Dang.

Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 1:00 pm
The Old Madeleine Church
3123 NE 24th Ave
Portland, OR

Performer: Amadeus in Concert with Portland Symphonic Choir and the Oregon Symphony
Amadeus – the dazzling story of the tortuous rivalry between world-renowned composers Mozart and Salieri – returns to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall to celebrate its 40th anniversary! Accompanied by a live performance of the score with the Oregon Symphony and Portland Symphonic Choir, this is a sumptuous and astonishing movie experience that you will never forget.

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 7:30 pm Pacific
Friday, February 28, 2025 at 7:30 pm Pacific
1037 SW Broadway
Portland, OR
Details & Tickets

Stagehand: New Wave Opera Presents Wags and Whiskers
New Wave Opera presents a double bill of operas about cats and dogs, Pepito (Nicolás Lell Benavides & Marella Martin Koch) and Meow and Forever (Jodi Goble & Basil Considine) where Drew will be running the supertitles 
Pepito by Nicolás Lell Benavides & Marella Martin Koch
Pepito, a lonely shelter dog, misses his old family and his old life. Camila and David, young married professionals, are searching for the perfect dog. As Camila and Pepito form an unshakeable bond, the cracks in Camila and David’s marriage deepen, and Angie, the manager of the shelter, asks them the hard question: are they sure they are ready for this? ​(Runtime: ~25 minutes)

Meow and Forever by Jodi Goble & Basil Considine
​Bailey is swept away in a whirlwind romance with Asha, neglecting her other obligations…and her best friend, Alex. This drama is looked upon with bemusement by Bailey’s cats – Chester and Nala – who have their own priorities, interjecting themselves into the scenes AND music! Events come to a head when Alex comes over to confront Bailey about her friend-abandonment, and the two affectionately make up just in time for Asha to misconstrue everything. And yes, yes, there is a trio with singing cats. Happy ending guaranteed! ​(Runtime: ~40 minutes)

Saturday, January 18, 2025, 7:30 pm Pacific
Sunday, January 19, 2025, 2:00 pm Pacific
University of Portland Mago Hunt Recital Hall, 5000 N Willamette Blvd, Portland, OR 97203
Details & Tickets

Composer: New Wave Opera Presents O-Paw-raw Night
New Wave Opera presents O-Paw-raw at Mendelssohns Clasical Music Bar where they will preview their upcoming double bill, Wag and Whiskers. Resident soprano Lindsey Rae Johnson performs selections from the Dead Fires Anthology: Vulnerability, Stillness, and There Is Frost (poetry by Carolynq Quick) and my art song A Poem of Gratitude (poetry by Caroline Erdmann).

Saturday, January 11, 2025, 8-10 pm Pacific
Mendelssohn’s Bar. 3955 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97227
$10 cover in support of the musicians

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

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