Matthew Welch is a bagpiper and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. He treats the Highland pipes as a concert instrument, combining bagpipes with gamelan, classical, and experimental music while premiering new works by living composers including Julia Wolfe and Anthony Braxton.
Matthew Welch is a bagpiper and composer who treats the Highland pipes as a concert instrument. Mixing his backgrounds in bagpipes, gamelan, experimental, classical, rock and improvised music, Welch's compositional sound is worldly and eclectic in material, yet personal and seamless in style. Beyond the traditional repertoire, Welch has pioneered new techniques and materials in his own works that include the bagpipe and has premiered a number of new compositions written for bagpipes by living composers such as Julia Wolfe, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, Paula Matthusen, Zeena Parkins, David Watson, Michael O'Neill and Lainie Fefferman. His ensemble, Blarvuster, has been based in New York City since 2002. Welch co-founded Experiments in Opera in 2011. Welch found a path to something I never thought I'd hear: the bagpipe as a lyric instrument, capable of poetic expression.
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