Bio

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mathewson has built a career of music-making in many forms: teaching, performing, collaborating and composing. While pursuing her Bachelor's of Music in Music Education at Mercyhurst, she started formally studying composition in the fall of 2015. She has since enjoyed a healthy performance schedule of her own music. Commissions include “The Peaceful Kingdom” for mixed choir, organ and trumpet written for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown, NY (2015) and “Sunrise on the Pennsylvania Railroad” (2018) for the Tuscarora Junior High School Band, under the direction of Mr. Aaron Himes. Her primary teachers include Albert Glinsky (composition), Linda Kobler (keyboard), Daniel Cassin, Marian Byard, Robin Hasenpflug and Eleanor Lee (cello). She has participated in masterclasses with Dennis Parker, Adrian Daurov, Nicholas Canellakis, and FlyetMusik. She also has been involved with the indie music scene, having performed with her acoustic folk trio, “Indigo Project” in the Jamestown, New York area and enjoys songwriting and collaborating with musicians in non-classical settings.

From an early age, Mathewson has been deeply connected to music. She began piano lessons when she was five, and then became interested in cello at age twelve. She has always had a fierce passion for singing, and takes every opportunity she gets to share her love of song. Her compositional influences stem from a particular interest in genres such as folk, blues, and classical, to name only a few. Her wish is to create meaningful music that reflects the human experience: personality, questions, connection to nature, beauty, sadness, life and death.

Mathewson is the music teacher at Grandview Elementary School in the Millcreek Township School District in Erie, PA. Her responsibilities include General Music for grades K-5 as well as directing 4th Grade Strings lessons, 5th Grade Band, Orchestra, Chorus and Select Singers. In her spare time, she can be found taking walks in nature, cooking, and spending time with her family and cats.