Raindrop New Music

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Raindrop New Music

Composer collective/sheet music store featuring vocal music & beyond by gender diverse PNW composers

Raindrop New Music was founded by (and is currently run by) collaborators Drew Swatosh, Lisa Neher, and Carolyn Quick.

07/08/2026

Today composer Lisa Neher and librettist Basil Tulsi Herbspice Considine, in collaboration with New Wave Opera and Really Spicy Opera record the work they have been doing workshopping act 1 of their opera, Kitchen Wedding Murder.

Kitchen/Wedding/Murder is an opera murder mystery comedy that’s equal parts Clue and Abbott & Costello, with a bit of P.G. Wodehouse-style situational comedy thrown in for extra flavor. It is specifically designed to be a highly accessible first opera for people who don’t normally listen to classical music, especially true crime fans and those looking for a unique and hilarious date night.

This workshop of act 1 Kitchen Wedding Murder continues New Wave Opera's mission of bringing new work to life and supporting new work with the time to develop new pieces. We are so excited for Lisa and Basil and look forward to further developments with Kitchen Wedding Murder. Learn more in the comment below

06/09/2026

Carolyn Gale-Quick's new work for choir and organ Sing to the Lord for the St. James Lutheran Church Choir (directed by Dr. John Cox) premieres on June 14th. The concert is at St. James Lutheran Church at 5pm.

Sing to the Lord sets an abridged text from Psalm 98, celebrating the works of the Lord with joyful noise in song. The work was written for St. James’s Bach Vespers service, featuring Bach’s BWV 2 - Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein as a celebratory foil.

From Carolyn’s program notes:

“Though the work is indeed celebratory in nature, it eschews a true major mode, opting for more angularity with modal writing, parallel 4ths, and grand triplets to illustrate both the splendor of the Lord’s works and deeds while still reflecting remnants of the pleading, almost desperate narrative nature of Bach’s Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein.”

04/27/2026

🎂Happy Birthday to our wonderful co-founder Drew Swatosh, Composer & Vocalist (they/them)!

We so appreciate your vision for Raindrop New Music and how you brought this group of gender-diverse composers together to uplift and amplify one another's music. We love how joyfully you support your friends and colleagues endeavors and how openly you share your full self, with integrity, vulnerability, and warmth, through your compositions and singing!

We hope you have a great birthday and we are so excited to enjoy your upcoming musical creations!

Photo credit: Antonia Rose Photo

04/06/2026

Happy Birthday to our lovely co-founder Carolyn Gale-Quick (sher/her)! 🥳

We - (Drew, Jesse, & Lisa) love seeing all of the amazing adventures you got to have last year from composing a chamber opera to getting married. It is a joy to watch your career as a composer continue to grow as you become known for your thought provoking and engaging choral works and continually step into your genius zone. The feistiness and vibrancy you bring to building Raindrop New Music is deeply felt and appreciated. We love you and hope you have a fabulous day, and look forward to your future artistic endeavors as we embark on this next chapter of Raindrop New Music!

📸: Antonia Rose Photo

03/03/2026

Come connect with us at ACDA Northwestern Region Conference this week!

Raindrop New Music Co Founders Carolyn Gale-Quick and Drew Swatosh, Composer & Vocalist will be at the conference and are featured on several events on Friday, March 6!

10:00 am - Carolyn performs with In Medio in the Pantages Theatre

1:45 pm - Meet Drew & Carolyn at the Meet the Composer Session outside the Pantages Theatre, where you can peruse sample scores and get to know our whole Raindrop New Music Choral Catalog!

4:30 pm: Reading Session 1 at the Downtown Marriot, including Carolyn's piece "O Fire"

We're so excited to see you! Come say hello!

02/25/2026

Raindrop New Music is delighted to introduce the newest member of our collective, Jesse Preis!

Jesse Preis is a Portland-based composer, tenor, pianist, and teacher originally from Emblem, Wyoming, whose compositions have been described as “hypnotic music” (Lorin Wilkerson, Oregon ArtsWatch). They hold an MMus in Vocal Performance from West Virginia University and both a BMus in Piano Performance & Pedagogy and a BArts in Vocal Performance from the University of Montana.

A composer for many different types of ensembles, Jesse’s compositions have been performed and/or recorded by Renegade Opera, Portland Symphonic Choir, the Northwest Civic Orchestra of Powell, WY, and pianist Nikos Syropoulos. While composing, Jesse aims to write music that combines tradition and melody with innovation and storytelling.

As a performer, they have collaborated with Renegade Opera as a pianist on works such as La clemenza di Tito (2022) and She Loves You Back (2023), they have performed with the Lutheran Chorale Association, the Portland Symphonic Girl Choir, the Portland Symphonic Choir, and the Portland Choir and Orchestra, as well as having collaborated with other church and community choirs in Oregon, West Virginia, and Montana. As a tenor, Jesse has appeared as Eisenstein in Orlofsky’s Party (Renegade Opera), Perry in Orfeo in Underland (Renegade Opera), Parpignol in La boheme Warhola (Pittsburgh Festival Opera), the First Priest and Armored Guard in The Magic Flute (WVU), and roles in numerous opera scenes productions.

Browse Jesse's catalog and get to know their work on our website, raindropnewmusic.com!

12/17/2025

❄️Happy Holidays to you and yours from Raindrop New Music!

As the darkest night of the year approaches, we hope you all are keeping warm (or for Portland folks, keeping dry during this very rainy season).

If you do wish to venture out in search of festive tunes, be sure to check out In Medio's At the Holidays concert on December 19th and 20th - featuring the world premiere of co-founder Carolyn Gale-Quick 's arrangement of God Rest You Merry, Gentleman. Also on the program, local Portland Composer Naomi LaViolette’s Winter Solstice.

https://inmediochoir.org/ath25

Address

Portland, OR

Website

https://linktr.ee/raindropnewmus

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