{{Short description|Australian composer (born 1975)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} '''Matthew Shlomowitz''' (born 7 February 1975) is a composer of contemporary classical music and Associate Professor in Composition at the [[University of Southampton]].
==Biography==
He was raised in [[Adelaide, Australia]], and studied with {{Interlanguage link multi|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<ref>{{cite news |title=Group's strengths play more to contemporary than older music |url=https://news.google.com/archivesearch?&q=%22Matthew%20Shlomowitz%22&num=100 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=26 January 2010 |accessdate=23 March 2011 }}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite news |title=No divas, just sparkling team effort |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/03/1067708141260.html |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=4 November 2003 |accessdate=23 March 2011 }}</ref> 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''<ref>{{cite news |title=Calefax |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article3074676.ece |work=[[The Times]] |date=20 December 2007 |accessdate=23 March 2011 }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> 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''<ref>{{cite news |title=Beauty of the spitting image |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/beauty-of-the-spitting-image/2006/08/07/1154802819617.html |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=8 August 2006 |accessdate=23 March 2011 }}</ref> 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,<ref name="Musicuratum2012">{{cite web|title=Matthew Shlomowitz|url=http://musicuratum.com/2012/09/20/matthew-shlomowitz/|accessdate=25 August 2015|date=20 September 2012}}</ref> {{Quote|... 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 |author=musicuratum.com}}
Some of his music shows the structural constraints analogous to the rules of [[Oulipo]];<ref name=Musicuratum2012 /> familiar sounds from popular and everyday culture are also a regular feature of his music palette.<ref>{{cite web|title=Matthew Shlomowitz, what one hears in Popular Contexts|url=http://www.memm.be/fr/news/detail/slug/matthew-shlomowitz-what-one-hears-in-popular-contexts|website=Music Electronique / Musique Mixte|publisher=Centre Henri Pousseur|accessdate=25 August 2015}}</ref>
==Musical style== He has described his own music as being "something like the bastard love child of [[Brian Ferneyhough]] and [[Philip Glass]]."<ref>GAIDA 2016 programme notes, cited in {{cite web|last1=Makem in the Baltic|title=Baltic Musical Gems|url=http://balticgems.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/|website=balticgems.blogspot.com.au|accessdate=17 September 2017|date=26 October 2016}}</ref>
==Musical works== Selected musical works, including commissions and major works, are:<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shlomowitz|first1=Matthew|title=Works|url=http://www.shlom.com/?p=works|website=Shloms.com|accessdate=25 August 2015}}</ref> {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Category !! Title !! Year !! Orchestration !! Commissioned by |- | Vocal music || Instrumental Music || 2011 || 8 voices || EXAUDI |- | Performance pieces || Letter Pieces || 2007+ || Open-score pieces for performer and musician || - |- | Orchestra || Music and Actions for strings, keyboard and conductor || 2015 || Conductor, keyboard and string orchestra || Nederlands Strijkers Gilde |- | " || Listening Styles || 2013 || orchestra with drum kit || The [[Adelaide Festival]] |- | 7+ players || Popular Contexts, Volume 3: The Music of Theatre Making || 2011 || Conductor, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, drum-kit (with glockenspiel), guitar, mandolin, violin, viola, cello, double bass and sampler keyboard || [[Nieuw Ensemble]] |- | " || Avant Muzak || 2010 || Flute, soprano saxophone, drum kit, electric guitar, harp, violin, cello and sampler || Centre Henri Pousseur for Ensemble bESIdES |- | " || Joy Time Ride for Ives || 2009 || Flute, oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon, drum-kit, electric organ, 2 violins, cello and double bass || Ives Ensemble |- | 2–6 players || Popular Contexts, Volume 7: Public domain music || 2014 || Clarinet, electric guitar, synthesizer and sampler, drum-kit and cello || asamisimasa |- | " || The Major Sevenths Medley || 2014 || 4 electric guitars || TRANSIT Festival for Zwerm |- | " || Popular Contexts, Volume 6 || 2013 || Trio for vibraphone, drum-kit and sampler keyboard || [[MaerzMusik]], [[Speak Percussion]] with support from [[Julian Burnside]] |- | " || Logic Rock || 2013 || Guitar and drum kit || bESIdES |- | " || Songs about words and about the pleasure of misery || 2012 || Soprano and piano || The Britten-Pears Foundation |- | " || Popular Contexts, Volume 4: Rhythm Section || 2012 || midi guitar and 3 drum kits || Drumming Grupo da percussao |- | " || Theme Street Parade || 2009 || String quartet || [[BBC]] for Quatuor Diotima |- | " || Earth Breeze Smoke || 2008 || 2 recorders || The Bruges Concertgebouw |- | " || Line and Length || 2007 || Soprano saxophone, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet & bassoon || The 2007 [[Spitalfields Festival]] for Calefax |- | " || Slow Flipping Harmony || 2006 || Four melodic instruments and one auxiliary player || The [[Australia Council for the Arts]] for [[Ensemble Offspring]] |- | " || Free Square Jazz || 2005 || Soprano/tenor recorder, electric guitar, double bass and drum kit || The [[Orpheus Chamber Orchestra#Educational programs|Orpheus Institute]] for Champ D'Action |- | Solos || Popular Contexts, Volume 2 || 2010 || For piano, sampler, voice and physical actions (one person) || Centre Henri Pousseur for [[Stephane Ginsburgh]] |- | " || Serious and Sincere Sentiments About Something (or "Thought Rhythms") || 1999 || Guitar || The [[Australia Council for the Arts]] |- | Works with video || A Documentary Saga of the OULIPO || 2006–7 || Video work with Rees Archibald & Andrew Infanti || - |- | " || Six Aspects of the Body in Image and Sound || 2004 || Clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello and video (by Rees Archibald) || The Bath International Festival of Music for The Tate Ensemble |}
==Operas== *Electric Dreams (2017)<ref>{{cite web|title=Matthew Shlomowitz (AU) {{!}} Electric Dreams|url=http://www.steirischerherbst.at/english/Programme/musikprotokoll-2017/Electric-Dreams|website=steirischerherbst|accessdate=21 October 2017|language=de-de}}</ref>
==Prizes and awards== *7th Johann-Joseph-Fux Competition for Opera Composition<ref>{{cite web|title=Prize winners|url=https://www.kug.ac.at/en/arts-science/arts-science/competitions-courses/7th-johann-joseph-fux-competition-for-opera-composition/prize-winners.html|website=University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz|accessdate=21 October 2017|language=de}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.shlom.com/ Matthew Shlomowitz official site] * [http://www.bmic.co.uk/composers/nv_details.asp?ComposerID=2774 British Music Information Centre] * [http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=1219 Australian Music Centre] * {{YouTube|id=IdBKBLYyWTs|title=Electric Dreams}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shlomowitz, Matthew}} [[Category:1975 births]] [[Category:21st-century Australian classical composers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian classical composers]] [[Category:Australian male classical composers]] [[Category:Constrained writing]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni]] [[Category:20th-century Australian male musicians]] [[Category:21st-century Australian male musicians]]