Matthew Barnson is the composer of over 80 works for orchestras, choirs, string quartets, voices, chamber ensembles, dancers, and computers. He is an associate professor of composition at Stony Brook University. The quality and invention of his works have been recognized with numerous awards, fellowships, and commissions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Barlow Commissions, two Aaron Copland Awards, an American Opera Project Fellowship funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, to name a few. Yaddo, MacDowell, Millay Arts, Copland House, Djerassi, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and other major artist residencies have extended invitations in support of his work. His work has been performed at Radio France, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Wigmore Hall, Aspen, and other venues throughout the United States and Europe. His debut album, Sibyl Tones, was released on Tzadik in 2014 and his second album, Vanitas, was released on Innova in 2019.
At MacDowell, Barnson completed the first movement of his violin concerto, and, because he wrote it out of order, completed the entire 34-minute work while in residence.
