Matthew Barnson
Matthew Barnson is emerging as an exciting new voice in both the United States and Europe. His work was featured at the 2007 MATA Festival and the 2006 ISCM World New Music Days in Stuttgart at the special invitation of Wolfgang Rihm. He has been in residency at Acanthes (2005-2007), Aspen (2004-2005), June in Buffalo (2005, 2007) and Ostrava Days (2007). His works are performed by top veteran new music ensembles, venerable orchestras and some of the most exciting emerging artists, including the Arditti String Quartet, Quator Diotima, the Manson Ensemble, the Knights, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lorraine, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Yale Philharmonia, the Janacek Philharmonic, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Seraphic Fire, singers Nicole Cabell, Ian Howell and Erin Morley, violist John Graham, cellist Jason Calloway and conductors Simon Bainbridge, Peter Eötvös, Sarah Hicks, Shinaik Haim, Roland Kluttig, Jacque Mercier and Zsolt Nagy. After winning several minor competitions, he became the youngest recipient of a Barlow Commission at the age of 22; in 2007 he received his second Barlow Commission. He was recently awarded a 2008 Jerome Commission. His teachers have included Joseph Schwantner, Augusta Reid Thomas, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky and in extensive masterclasses: Wolfgang Rihm, Kaija Saariaho and Toshio Hosokawa. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a doctorate at Yale with Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, David Lang and Ingram Marshall. A native of Salt Lake City, he currently lives in New York City. Up and coming projects include a major new work for Third Coast Percussion, a song cycle for countertenor Ian Howell, a percussion solo for James Dietz, a large triptych of violin sonatas, and a collection of sacred music.