C.V.
Biography (Short)
Matthew Barnson is the composer of numerous works for orchestras, choirs, string quartets, voices, chamber ensembles, dancers, and computers.
An assistant professor of composition at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he has received fellowships, commissions, and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
His work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, the Kennedy Center, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Royal Academy of Music, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, MATA, Wigmore Hall, Aspen, the San Francisco War Memorial and other venues throughout the United States and Europe.His album of string quartets, Sibyl Tones, was released on Tzadik in 2014. He lives in New York.
His album of string quartets, Sibyl Tones, was released on Tzadik in 2014
Download high-res head shots here. Photo credit: Mingzhe Wang.
BIOGraphy (Long)
Recently named a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, Matthew Barnson composes for orchestras, choirs, string quartets, voices, chamber ensembles, dancers, and computers. Recently, his music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, the Kennedy Center, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Royal Academy of Music, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, MATA, Wigmore Hall, Aspen, the San Francisco War Memorial, and other venues through- out the United States and Europe. His work has been recognized with awards and commissions from the Barlow Endowment, Aaron Copland House, NewMusicUSA, Jerome Foundation, Yale University, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among others and in addition to residencies at a number of artist colonies in the United States and abroad.
He studied at Eastman, the University of Pennsylvania, IRCAM, and Yale with Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, Steven Stucky, Augusta Read Thomas, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Ingram Marshall, and David Lang. Studies with Wolfgang Rihm at Acanthes were brief but important and influential. Large-scale works have been commissioned by, and performed in recent seasons by Third Coast Percussion, the Yale School of Music, the JACK Quartet, and Volti.
Mr. Barnson teaches composition, electronic music, theory, and the history of music after 1945 and has taught at Yale College, chaired the composition and theory department at New York’s Third Street Music School Settlement, served as assistant professor of composition at Trinity College Dublin and currently serves as an assistant professor of composition at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
His album of string quartets, Sibyl Tones, was released on Tzadik in 2014