Matthew Shlomowitz

Last updated

Matthew Shlomowitz (born 7 February 1975) is a composer of contemporary classical music and Associate Professor in Composition at the University of Southampton.

Contents

Biography

He was raised in Adelaide, Australia, and studied with Božidar Kos  [ sl ] at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and with Brian Ferneyhough at Stanford University. He also studied privately with Michael Finnissy in the United Kingdom.

Since 2002 he has lived in London [1] where he lectured at the Royal College of Music and for the Syracuse University London Program. He taught composition at Durham University during the 2008/09 academic year and was a Programme Collaborator for the Borealis Festival in Norway.

Music

He is co-director of Plus minus ensemble and the performance series Rational Rec and is a member of InterInterInter, a group that creates events mixing performance and audience activity. He was also a co-founder of Ensemble Offspring. [2] He has been represented by the New Voices scheme at the British Music Information Centre and by the Australian Music Centre.

The bulk of his compositions are for chamber ensembles and often involve unusual instrumental combinations. Free Square Jazz, for instance, is for recorder, electric guitar, double bass and drum kit and Line and Length [3] is scored for soprano saxophone, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet & bassoon.

A number of his works are interdisciplinary such as the music-video pieces Train Travel [4] and Six Aspects of the Body in Image and Sound (co-created with Rees Archibald) and an ongoing series of works for visual performer and musician called Letter Pieces. Certain works fall more comfortably into the genre of "performance pieces" such as Northern Cities and When is a Door Not a Door? Other works blur the boundaries between concert music and performance piece such as Five Monuments of Our Time, an orchestral work that requires the conductor to perform a series of choreographed gestures often ludicrously unrelated to the music being played. Such apparent absurdity and humor is not unintended; it has been said that, [5]

... he seems to have a special feeling for those inadvertently comical situations in which we all sometimes find ourselves: a peculiar kind of miscommunication where we don’t so much get our wires crossed ... as get entangled in them

musicuratum.com

Some of his music shows the structural constraints analogous to the rules of Oulipo; [5] familiar sounds from popular and everyday culture are also a regular feature of his music palette. [6]

Musical style

He has described his own music as being "something like the bastard love child of Brian Ferneyhough and Philip Glass." [7]

Musical works

Selected musical works, including commissions and major works, are: [8]

CategoryTitleYearOrchestrationCommissioned by
Vocal musicInstrumental Music20118 voicesEXAUDI
Performance piecesLetter Pieces2007+Open-score pieces for performer and musician-
OrchestraMusic and Actions for strings, keyboard and conductor2015Conductor, keyboard and string orchestraNederlands Strijkers Gilde
"Listening Styles2013orchestra with drum kitThe Adelaide Festival
7+ playersPopular Contexts, Volume 3: The Music of Theatre Making2011Conductor, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, drum-kit (with glockenspiel), guitar, mandolin, violin, viola, cello, double bass and sampler keyboard Nieuw Ensemble
"Avant Muzak2010Flute, soprano saxophone, drum kit, electric guitar, harp, violin, cello and samplerCentre Henri Pousseur for Ensemble bESIdES
"Joy Time Ride for Ives2009Flute, oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon, drum-kit, electric organ, 2 violins, cello and double bassIves Ensemble
2–6 playersPopular Contexts, Volume 7: Public domain music2014Clarinet, electric guitar, synthesizer and sampler, drum-kit and celloasamisimasa
"The Major Sevenths Medley20144 electric guitarsTRANSIT Festival for Zwerm
"Popular Contexts, Volume 62013Trio for vibraphone, drum-kit and sampler keyboard MaerzMusik, Speak Percussion with support from Julian Burnside
"Logic Rock2013Guitar and drum kitbESIdES
"Songs about words and about the pleasure of misery2012Soprano and pianoThe Britten-Pears Foundation
"Popular Contexts, Volume 4: Rhythm Section2012midi guitar and 3 drum kitsDrumming Grupo da percussao
"Theme Street Parade2009String quartet BBC for Quatuor Diotima
"Earth Breeze Smoke20082 recordersThe Bruges Concertgebouw
"Line and Length2007Soprano saxophone, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet & bassoonThe 2007 Spitalfields Festival for Calefax
"Slow Flipping Harmony2006Four melodic instruments and one auxiliary playerThe Australia Council for the Arts for Ensemble Offspring
"Free Square Jazz2005Soprano/tenor recorder, electric guitar, double bass and drum kitThe Orpheus Institute for Champ D'Action
SolosPopular Contexts, Volume 22010For piano, sampler, voice and physical actions (one person)Centre Henri Pousseur for Stephane Ginsburgh
"Serious and Sincere Sentiments About Something (or "Thought Rhythms")1999GuitarThe Australia Council for the Arts
Works with videoA Documentary Saga of the OULIPO2006–7Video work with Rees Archibald & Andrew Infanti-
"Six Aspects of the Body in Image and Sound2004Clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello and video (by Rees Archibald)The Bath International Festival of Music for The Tate Ensemble

Operas

Prizes and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Ferneyhough</span> British composer

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the University of California, San Diego; he teaches at Stanford University and is a regular lecturer in the summer courses at Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He has resided in California since 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sculthorpe</span> Australian composer (1929–2014)

Peter Joshua Sculthorpe was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aboriginal Australian music with that of the heritage of the West. He was known primarily for his orchestral and chamber music, such as Kakadu (1988) and Earth Cry (1986), which evoke the sounds and feeling of the Australian bushland and outback. He also wrote 18 string quartets, using unusual timbral effects, works for piano, and two operas. He stated that he wanted his music to make people feel better and happier for having listened to it. He typically avoided the dense, atonal techniques of many of his contemporary composers. His work was often characterised by its distinctive use of percussion. As one of the compositional pioneers of a distinctively Australian sound, Sculthorpe and his music have been likened to the role played by Aaron Copland in America's musical coming of age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Edwards (composer)</span> Australian composer

Ross Edwards is an Australian composer of a wide variety of music including orchestral and chamber music, choral music, children's music, opera and film music. His distinctive sound world reflects his interest in deep ecology and his belief in the need to reconnect music with elemental forces, as well as restore its traditional association with ritual and dance. He also recognises the profound importance of music as an agent of healing. His music, universal in that it is concerned with age-old mysteries surrounding humanity, is at the same time connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws inspiration, especially birdsong and the mysterious patterns and drones of insects. As a composer living and working on the Pacific Rim, he is aware of the exciting potential of this vast region.

Damien Ricketson is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music. He is best known for his innovative compositional practice and in his capacity as the co-founder and co-artistic director of Ensemble Offspring. He is currently an academic at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney of which he is also an alumnus.

George Alfred Palmer is an Australian classical music composer and a former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

Brett Dean is an Australian composer, violist and conductor.

Matthew John Hindson AM is an Australian composer.

Derek Lawrence Keller is an American composer, guitarist, vocalist, and teacher. Keller previously served as a visiting assistant professor of music composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and he currently curates the music series for St. Paul's Episcopal Church, focusing on highlighting original avant-garde and improvisational music. He also works as an adjunct professor at William Jessup University.

Joseph Edward Twist is an Australian composer from Gold Coast, Queensland, who resides in the United States.

Martin Wesley-Smith was an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children's songs to environmental events. He worked in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer music, music theatre, chamber and orchestral music, and audiovisual pieces which bring words, music and images together. He often worked with his librettist brother, Peter Wesley-Smith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy López</span> Peruvian classical music composer

Jimmy López is a classical music composer from Lima, Peru. He has won several international awards and has been nominated to a Latin Grammy Awards. Pieces composed by him have been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Peru, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Gewandhaus Leipzig, and during the 2010 Youth Olympic games in Singapore. His music has been featured in numerous festivals, including Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Darmstadt International Course for New Music, and Donaueschingen Music Festival.

Liza Lim is an Australian composer. Lim writes concert music as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects. Her work reflects her interests in Asian ritual culture, the aesthetics of Aboriginal art and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.

The ELISION Ensemble is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music, concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works. The ensemble comprises a core of around 20 virtuoso musicians from Australia and around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Haynes (musician)</span> Australian clarinettist

Richard Elliot Haynes is an Australian clarinettist residing in Switzerland. He performs music spanning the 16th to 21st centuries worldwide, but predominantly music by living composers, in a multitude of contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Conyngham</span> Australian composer and academic (born 1944)

Barry Ernest Conyngham,, is an Australian composer and academic. He has over 70 published works and over 30 recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe. His output is largely for orchestra, ensemble or dramatic forces. He is an Emeritus Professor of both the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross University. He is former Dean of the Faculty of the Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.

David Anthony Ahern was an Australian composer and music critic, who became a prominent artist in the avant-garde genre after his best-known work, Ned Kelly Music was released and performed at the Sydney Proms music series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Holley</span> Australian composer and musician (born 1954)

Alan Holley is an Australian composer and musician.

James Ledger is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music, and senior lecturer in composition at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Western Australia, where he is chair of orchestral composition.

Gordon Kerry is an Australian composer, music administrator, music writer and music critic.

Armand Angster is a French clarinetist. With Françoise Kubler (soprano), he is the founder of the ensemble "Accroche Note", research and creative formation in contemporary music.

References

  1. "Group's strengths play more to contemporary than older music". The Sydney Morning Herald . 26 January 2010. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  2. "No divas, just sparkling team effort". The Sydney Morning Herald . 4 November 2003. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  3. "Calefax". The Times . 20 December 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2011.[ dead link ]
  4. "Beauty of the spitting image". The Sydney Morning Herald . 8 August 2006. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Matthew Shlomowitz". 20 September 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  6. "Matthew Shlomowitz, what one hears in Popular Contexts". Music Electronique / Musique Mixte. Centre Henri Pousseur. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  7. GAIDA 2016 programme notes, cited in Makem in the Baltic (26 October 2016). "Baltic Musical Gems". balticgems.blogspot.com.au. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  8. Shlomowitz, Matthew. "Works". Shloms.com. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  9. "Matthew Shlomowitz (AU) | Electric Dreams". steirischerherbst (in German). Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  10. "Prize winners". University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz (in German). Retrieved 21 October 2017.