Each concert Friends After Good Sound seeks to work with two to three composers from around the Portland Oregon Area. WE LOVE OUR COMPOSERS. We consider them to be a vital part of our collective, helping us better showcase the ingenious art Portland has to offer. Below is a list of those who have or currently are working with us.

TJ Thompson is an active composer and performer based in Portland, Oregon.   He is inspired by the subconscious ideas that flow through movement, active listening, and the collaborative nature of music.  With an ear towards experimenting, he especially enjoys composing for specific people and getting to work directly with musicians on a project.  Excited by the endless explorations of sound, he is interested in composing works for a diversity of instrumentations, pursuing the unique combinations of timbre.  As a performer he has long term collaborative partnerships with writer Diana Oropeza, in the experimental voice & drums project The Social Stomach, as well as the koto centric Multiverse Ensemble, with members of the Oregon Koto-Kai respectfully.

(Currently in workshop with FAGS for fall ’25)

Violet Heger is a Portland based artist transcending the limits of disciplinarity, finding amusement in gluing together the interstices of Sonic Arts, Visual Arts, Literary/Poetic Arts, and whatever else comes her way–resulting in compositions which are often irreducible to any single medium. Nonetheless, her passion for percussion is evident in the rhythmic inclinations underlying her work, be it performed on the drum-kit or written on a page. Similarly, her work contains and utilizes elements of cyclicality, fragmentation, and asymmetry. The result? Art-works which wear their aporias on their sleeve, allowing the audience to complete the Rorschachs before them.

(Currently in workshop with FAGS for Fall 25’)

Former Brooklynite turned Portlander, Freddi Wyss (they/them) is a time-based artist who uses a variety of media to examine the spaces of communication, development and breakdown. As a gap artist, they utilize experimental music, performance, and hybrid poetry to explore depths of emotional processing–highlighting the spaces in between moments, words, and melodies. Freddi currently works under the moniker Warm Canopy, collaborates with the embodied movement collective Tiny Vessels, and  plays in several Portland based bands including Fog Cutter and Karen Caskets.

(currently in workshop with FAGS for fall 25’)

 Ollie Sims is an electronic musician and artist currently based in New Orleans. He makes pop music and sound based art installations. He is a part of the band evrynightdaily.

(Wrote Ibis Mating Dance for FAGS Summer 25’)

Betty Booher studies composition at Portland State University with Professor Renée Favand-See and jazz voice with Professor Sherry Alves. In combining jazz studies with her classical background, Betty incorporates influences from both in her compositions, often including vocal parts and improvisation in her chamber music. Her double reed quartet, The Emmett Variations, was a recent winner of the international Double Reed Society’s 50 for 50 competition and was featured at the IDRS convention last July. Returning to school had been a longtime goal, and she’s delighted to have the chance to tell stories through her music.

(Wrote Creating Good Sounds together for FAGS Summer 25’)

Francisco Botello is a Mexican/American sound artist and educator born and raised in Chula Vista, California. Growing up a dual citizen on the dividing line between the United States and Mexico, their work reflects on the nature of place and belonging. Gathering and composing with field recordings, alongside electronics and computer music tools, they explore questions of identity, ancestry, geography, change, and loss. Recently, they have been experimenting with gestural control and working with immersive, multi-channel sound systems as ways to connect their work more intimately with their body and audience. Their multi-channel work has been showcased at places such as Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, PNCA, Portland Art Museum as well as many other community spaces.

(Wrote Threshold No. 1 for Viola, Cello, Accordion and Harmonium for FAGS Winter 25’)

Frances Bigelow is currently a Seattle-based composer and coloratura soprano. She holds a dual Bachelor of Music degree from Portland State University, where she studied composition with Renée Favand-See and voice with Christine Meadows. Her work has been performed by groups including the Choral Chameleon Ensemble and the Portland Symphonic Choir. She has performed variously as a soloist and chorister with PSU Opera, Queer Opera, PSU Rose & Thorn, Kirkland Choral Society, and the Oregon Symphony. Her primary interest is in writing for voices, whether that be choral music, art song, or opera.

(Wrote XYZ for FAGS Winter 25’)

Michael Anderson is a composer based in Portland Oregon. He is ever curious how something gross becomes delectable, how one situation lends itself into the creation of another, and how an ecosystem based in the familiar gets warped into the unknown. These types of psycho-emotional reactions to sound are what inspires him to make odd little jewels of electroacoustic creation. Michael studied with Renee Favand-See at Portland State University where he received his Bachelors of Music Composition. In early 2024 he created Friends After Good Sound, a new music collective focused on premiering new works by local composers.

(Wrote Pundit for FAGS Winter 25’)