Kristen Mather de Andrade

About

Kristen Mather de Andrade’s upcoming album—Sem Fim—is the lush, Brazilian orchestral record she’s always longed to make. The title means “endless” in Portuguese, and for Mather de Andrade, that title is layered with meanings.

“I chose the repertoire for this album from a long tradition—some of which dates back 100 years—and put my own spin on it,” says the New York-based clarinetist, vocalist, and producer. “Music endures. It is interpreted and reinterpreted thousands of times. In that way, it feels endless.”

This infinite connection also includes Mather de Andrade being part of a women’s lineage in music. Among other composers, Sem Fim showcases compositions from two early female icons of Brazilian music. It also features a Grammy-winning, all-female engineering team. The album was recorded and mixed by Brandie Lane, and mastered by Darcy Proper.

“It was a great opportunity for me to work with women on this album,” Mather de Andrade says. “It’s an inspiration to think about being part of a lineage of women putting music out into the world.”

Mather de Andrade is a critically-acclaimed artist who has now released three albums, and two EPs. In her aesthetic, jazz, classical, and Brazilian music commingle, creating a sensibility that defies genres, honors traditions, and seeks to bridge the distance between often esoteric music and public tastes.

“I like composers like Leroy Anderson, Johann Strauss, and a performer like Lawrence Welk who would program music from any genre, and make that music connect for people who often didn’t have a frame of reference for it,” Mather de Andrade says.

Outside of her solo career, Mather de Andrade is the principal clarinetist and soloist with the West Point Band. In this esteemed position, she has performed at the United Nations Headquarters for an international audience of ambassadors, and she’s performed for world leaders, including American presidents, and the former Queen of Spain. Mather de Andrade has also performed at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Severance Hall, the New York City studio for Musicians@Google, and the concert barge Point Counterpoint II on the Ohio River with the American Wind Symphony. In addition to her live appearances, Mather de Andrade produces events and digital content for the West Point Band. Some of these projects have aired on major national networks.

Mather de Andrade grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, a world away from Brazil. But she fell in love with Brazil’s sensuous and melodious music, and later married into the culture by way of her Brazilian spouse. Mather de Andrade learned Portuguese by ear, and made her Brazilian music debut during a Facebook livestream event, in front of a Brazilian audience. Her performance was favorably featured in the O Globo, the Brazilian Global News.

Mather de Andrade is now preparing to release her third album. For Sem Fim, she wanted to create a record aligned with her orchestral background. Mather de Andrade co-produced the album, alongside musicians Vitor Gonçalves and Eduardo Belo. The album features a 15-piece orchestra, including the string quintet Toomai, a horn section, and a Brazilian rhythm section.

Mather de Andrade’s clarinet eases through the sumptuous and sometimes intricate melodies of the 8-song collection with lyrical restraint. About half the tracks feature her delicately beautiful vocals. Much care went into the album arrangements, each one imaginatively unfolding often with additional newly-written passages.

Sem Fim offers a potpourri of classic Brazilian traditions, including choro, frevo, sertanejo, MPB, and bossa novas. It features compositions by iconic Brazilian female composers Chiquinha Gonzaga and Tia Amélia, and James Reese Europe, who was not only an Army musician like Mather de Andrade, but was also the leading African-American musician in New York City in the 1910s.

Sem Fim boasts the first ever recording of the smoldering, “Endless and Blind,” a song by award-winning composer Daniel Freiberg and Tony Award, Grammy Award, and Laurence Olivier Award-winning poet, playwright, lyricist, television writer and screenwriter Steven Sater. Mather de Andrade’s vocals here are intimate and seductive. “It’s such a romantic song. I’ve never sung anything like this before because I am usually a private person. I really had to wear my heart on my sleeve,” she admits.

Like on her first album, Mather de Andrade includes a clarinet showcase, the choro classic, “Clarinete Dengoso,” originally written by Pitanguinha. Opening with a fanfare of stately strings and a sexy guitar lick, Mather de Andrade’s clarinet then saunters in, dancing on top of the orchestra as it weaves in and out with dexterous and joyous abandon.

The up-tempo “Frevo Novo” bursts with darting and dazzling melodies and percolating rhythms. It features Mather de Andrade’s home-town friend, jazz trumpeter Sean Jones who is a world-renowned musician and educator. Jones is currently the chair of Peabody Institute’s jazz studies department at Johns Hopkins University. His playing on the “Frevo Novo” is euphonious and effortless.

Mather de Andrade recently won a grant, affording her the opportunity to perform Sem Fim on March 30, 2025 with the album’s 15-piece orchestra. In the future, she aspires to bring the album to life with more orchestras. She says: “I hope I can share this music with people all over the world.”