Matthew Welch

Few musicians integrate bagpipes into contemporary creative practices, placing Matthew Welch among that select group. His early training encompassed both Scottish bagpiping traditions and experimental approaches to sound. Academic studies took him to Simon Fraser University and Wesleyan University, where collaborations developed with Anthony Braxton and Alvin Lucier. Braxton specifically conceived Composition No. 247 around Welch’s bagpipes, an exception within the Ghost Trance Series whose works rarely target particular instruments. Welch further appeared on accordion for Lucier’s Vespers and Other Early Works. Ceol Nua appeared in 2002, presenting Welch’s compositions through performances by the Janacek Conservatory Orchestra and various Wesleyan students.