a maestro comes home
Acclaimed composer infuses local music venues with new energy
Words by Rob Dalton
Composer and violinist Andrew Joslyn (photo: Carlos Cruz)
Andrew Joslyn is a composer, violinist and award-winning musical polymath who has performed with everyone from Macklemore to the Seattle Symphony. After a career spent touring the world, contributing to hundreds of songs, scoring feature films and running his own production studio, he’s returned to Bainbridge Island—the starting point of his musical journey and now its beneficiary.
Joslyn grew up on the island, beginning music lessons at the age of five with the encouragement of his Zen buddhist parents. “My grandmother was a famous cellist, and her husband started the London String Quartet,” he says. “So there was a strong classical pedigree my dad wanted to pass along. I first took Suzuki violin lessons right here in Lynwood where the Treehouse Café is now.”
“I’ll be the first to admit I did not have a normal childhood,” Joslyn adds. “For my folks, Zen was a daily spiritual practice. Having that philosophical and spiritual guidance was a powerful foundation for me. In many ways, it was very idyllic.”
One of Joslyn’s most notable collaborations is with the Grammy-winning rapper Macklemore. As a core member of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Joslyn played a pivotal role in crafting the lush, orchestral soundscapes that became synonymous with the duo’s chart-topping hits. His string arrangements added depth and emotional impact to tracks like “Thrift Shop” and “Same Love,” earning critical acclaim and cementing his reputation as a master of his craft.
Joslyn’s circuitous, extraordinary journey reached a dizzying peak when he found himself onstage at the Grammys in 2014, performing “Same Love” while Queen Latifa married 32 same-sex couples. “Madonna was on the stage,” he remembers. “It was my over-the-top introduction to over-hyped TV.”
“I’ve been part of a couple of these massive zeitgeist things,” Joslyn says. “As a result, I had many artists who wanted to work with me. There was a lot of beautiful pre-wokeism, revolutionary stuff happening in the arts, and it was incredible to be part of those cultural touch points. The songs, the message, the music—it felt like being part of something important.”
andrew’s west sound playlist
We asked, and Joslyn delivered. His Spotify playlist, created just for Tideland, features music from more than 20 artists on the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas. They include musicians we’ve featured in our pages, such as Indianola Americana artist Lydia Ramsey and Bainbridge Island punk rockers Civil Rebellion. Listen and enjoy!
The ensuing years were fruitful as Joslyn toured the world with various artists and established a recording studio in Pioneer Square. “It was a whole art-production studio,” he recalls. “My colleague shot Ed Sheeran videos while I scored films and made music upstairs.” Then COVID hit and he had to shut it down.
When he came to visit his aging parents, he felt the need to make a change. “I’d been on the road relentlessly, flying to LA, Nashville, playing on Jimmy Fallon,” he says. “I love what I do because I feel like a kid, but I realized I needed some stability— so I returned to Bainbridge.”
Upon moving back, Joslyn immediately felt at home. “I had biked the whole island as a kid,” he says. “I know it like the back of my hand. It was always in the cards to return to Bainbridge.”
During the years Joslyn was establishing his presence on the international music scene, “A lot changed on the island, and a lot didn’t,” he says. “What surprised me most was that I remembered the live music scene being way more vibrant than I found it when I returned.”
It wasn’t long before Joslyn launched a series of shows at the Manor House and The Marketplace at Pleasant Beach Village, bringing fresh regional talent and energy to their stages. It started with Joslyn’s own Passenger String Quartet. The neo-classical group performed there at the tail end of the COVID lockdown, backing the songwriting duo from Seattle’s The Head and the Heart. It was the first in-person show there after COVID closures, and when the grateful crowd sang along, full-throated, to the song “Rivers and Roads,” it felt like catharsis.
While his work with Pleasant Beach Village ended this year, he continues to elevate the music scene on the Kitsap Peninsula, bringing diverse musical acts and programming to The Lynwood Theatre, Treehouse Café, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and other venues. Joslyn also works tirelessly to ensure local musicians have access to resources and opportunities, teaching workshops and mentoring aspiring artists. Meanwhile, his life continues to unfold in exciting new ways. He was recently named Director of Popular Programming for Seattle Symphony, and became a dad, welcoming his son Dorian with his wife Madison.