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*  Composer
*  Educator
*  Conductor

Matthews holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University of North Texas, where he studied with Larry Austin. He is currently Professor of Composition and Co-director of the Computer Music Studio at the University of Manitoba. Matthews is a conductor, a founding member of the chamber ensemble Thira and a founder and artistic director of the GroundSwell new music series. From 2002 to 2004 he was Composer-in-Residence with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. Works available on CD are: Symphony No. 1 and Out of the Earth (recorded by Virko Baley and the Kiev Camerata for TNC Records); In Emptiness, Over Emptiness (recorded by Therese Costes for the CDCM series on Centaur Records); Scattered Mirrors (recorded by Shirley Sawatzky on Adventures of Piano Woman); Of Time and Sky (recorded by Peter Vinograde on Two Canadian Masterworks for Piano); Fantasy (recorded by Victor Schultz on Jeté); Songs of the Masked Dancers (recorded by Thira on Passage Through Time); The First Sea (recorded by Lori Freedman for the CDCM series on Centaur Records); and Between the Wings of the Earth (recorded by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for BIS Records). He has lived and travelled extensively in Asia, Europe, Central America and the Caribbean.

Michael Matthews’s music has been performed in countries around the world. In July of 2006 his work The Skin of Night was premièred at the International Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia. October 2005 saw the performance of Away, Tear Away at the prestigious Cervantino Festival in Mexcio. In May of 2005 he oversaw the world première of his chamber opera Prince Kaspar, and also conducted the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra in the première of his Cello Concerto. In 2002 the world première recording of his Symphony No. 1 was released on TNC Records; Virko Baley conducted the Kiev Camerata Orchestra. Matthews has been the recipient of numerous commissions and awards; in 2000 he held a Rockefeller Foundation residency at the Bellagio Centre in Italy. In the summer of 1999 he was a participant in the Composition and Computer Music Seminar of the Bartók Festival in Szombathely, Hungary. His orchestral work Two Interludes was awarded third prize in the 1997 du Maurier Arts Ltd. New Music Festival Canadian Composers Competition. In 1994 he became the first Canadian to receive a prestigious commission from the International Computer Music Association. He has also received Canada Council and Manitoba Arts Council grants, the Winnipeg Rh Institute award for interdisciplinary research, a residency at the EMS computer music studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and a prize in the Premio Musicale Cittá di Trieste, Italy for his orchestral piece The Wind Was There. He has worked at the Banff Centre and at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University.

Commissions have come from such organisations as The Harrington/Loewen Duo, Meduse, the Onix Ensemble, Agassiz Music Festival and Agassiz Chamber Music Series, the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet, BIT 20 Ensemble, the Mondriaan Quartet, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Carlos Chavez Orchestra, the Kiev Camerata Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Hilliard Ensemble, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Molinari String Quartet, the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Ensemble Resonance, the Thira Ensemble, Vancouver New Music Society, the Roseberry Orchestra (U.K.), Prairie Theatre Exchange, CBC Radio, Aurora Musicale, Music Inter Alia, and the Korean chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Matthews has also written works for performers Therese Costes, Alejandro Escuer, Lori Freedman, Corey Hamm, Beverly Johnston, Sara Laimon, Paul Marleyn, Poul Rosenbaum, Shirley Sawatzky, Harry Sparnaay and Peter Vinograde.

“The common element one always feels in Michael Matthews’ work is its consideration. No note is inattentively placed. Everything has balance and proportion, as his Symphony No. 2 showed last night. Here was splendid craft, inspiration and fulfillment, a fine Canadian work deserving of a life in the literature.”
James Manishen-Winnipeg Free Press

“…The First (Symphony) certainly deserves the widest possible hearing and would be a terrific addition to the growing number of big symphonies from North America that have finally been making serious headway into the contemporary orchestral repertoire. The present performance, recorded by the Ukraine-based Kiev Camerata, here expanded to full symphony orchestra size, seems resplendent and is extremely well recorded.”
John Story-Fanfare

“…Matthews’ command of his textures will continue to impress and he manages to suggest that there is a very large orchestral palette at his disposal.”
(Between the Wings of the Earth) Martin Anderson-Fanfare

“Matthews has offered the listener an intelligent piece that tackles a variety of difficult questions. His solutions are eloquent and imaginative.”
(The Far Field) T. Patrick Carrabré-Border Crossings

“The wealth of ideas contained in Winnipeg composer Michael Matthews’ Between the Wings of the Earth would certainly send anyone present at Wednesday’s Manitoba Chamber Orchestra concert rushing to their CD players the next day to let this excellent work brew further.”
James Manishen-Winnipeg Free Press

“… a work of sustained, poetic integrity.”
(Fantasy) Laurel Howard-Border Crossings

“Dream Songs…is a truly compelling work…it is music of deep understanding and extraordinary technical resource.”
Neil Harris-Winnipeg Free Press
 

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