Bio:
Matt McBane is a composer, producer and violinist whose music draws on classical minimalism and avant pop; analog synthesizers and fiddle music; orchestras and found percussion; complex patterns and emotional nuance. He has been described as “a natural composer, a fresh voice” by the Los Angeles Times and praised for his “skittery, unpredictable and utterly charming musical inventions” by Bloomberg News.
Matt’s newest album, ‘Bathymetry,’ is a composition for percussion and analog synthesizer with Sandbox Percussion (2022 Grammy nominees) and released November 2022 on Cantaloupe Music. ‘Bathymetry’ was selected as an album of the month on Bandcamp, and an album of the year by the band Wilco, and was called “a musical and sensory journey like no other that has been offered in contemporary music recently” by Frédéric Cardin in PAN M 360. His next major project is an album-length composition, ‘Topography’ for cellist Ashley Bathgate and Mantra Percussion to be premiered in December 2023 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn co-presented by WNYC’s New Sounds for future broadcast.
Matt has also written for ensembles including Wild Up, So Percussion, Aizuri Quartet, Bearthoven, Calder Quartet and NOW Ensemble, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Brooklyn Festival, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Bang on a Can Marathon (NYC), Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), and many others. His music was featured in the 2022 Hulu/BBC show ‘Conversations with Friends.’ His 25-min suite for bluegrass string band, ‘Drawn’ was released on the Jake Schepps Quintet's album ‘Entwined’ which was called a 2015 album of the year by Colorado Public Radio.
Matt is the violinist and composer for his instrumental band, Build, which released two albums on New Amsterdam Records and has been described by New York Magazine as a “rocking post-classical quintet which takes inspiration from minimalist chamber music, instrumental rock, modal jazz, and more.” Matt was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Carlsbad Music Festival from 2003-2021, widely known for its programming of “adventurous music by the beach” for which he was called, “a first-rate organizer with a broad range of musical interests” by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times. He holds degrees from Princeton University and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
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Photo credit Tommy McAdams
