Biography

Reviews

"From the perspective of sheer sonic imagination, Mathew Rosenblum's
"Möbius Loop" made the strongest impression as it packed the octave not with 12 tones
but with 21, creating an ear-buzzing flood of sound, rich in unusual overtones. It was easiest
to appreciate Rosenblum's inventive style in the sections where the orchestra thinned out and the
four soloists (here, the persuasive Raschèr Saxophone Quartet) came to the fore. In slower
moments, the sound drifted from the stage like a force-field."
- Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, January 22, 2007

"Validating its place at the top of its musical niche, the Rascher Saxophone Quartet performed
works by Glass, Penderecki and Moe with remarkable precision. But the highlight
of the evening came with the premiere of Mathew Rosenblum's work for saxophone quartet and
chamber orchestra,"Mobius Loop." With richly layered themes and an intelligent use of color,
it shimmered with vibrancy. Though conductor Roger Zahab masterfully meshed the disparate
forces together, the musicians clearly felt a preternatural kinship with the work -- of the sort
that comes from only well-constructed and deeply felt music. Given it remains so
difficult to find good new music, this was a special evening."
- Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic
Best Classical 2002: Friday, December 27, 2002

"Encountering Mathew Rosenblum's opera 'RedDust' was a provocative
experience Saturday night at Opera Theater's world-premiere production at
The Andy Warhol Museum...the many media serve to increase the density of Rosenblum's
compelling psychological creation about Chinese author Shi-yin, who is suffering
from both writer's block and remorse over a romance that ended with his lover's suicide...
Rosenblum's score...was full of character, including lyrical beauty. Conductor Paul Hostetter led a
confident performance...Labels can be convenient because they tell us what to expect.
Rosenblum didn't want to play that game. His opera is a thought-provoking experience that
offers different rewards than its nominal genre usually provides."
- Mark, Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 23, 2007

Mathew Rosenblum was born in New York City in 1954. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe including the ISCM World Music Days in Oslo, De Ijsbreker in Amsterdam, the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, the Bing Theater in LA., and at the Sonic Boom Festival, the Kitchen, Merkin Hall, and Miller Theatre in New York City by ensembles including the California Ear Unit, Newband, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Chicago Contemporary Players, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Sequitur, Speculum Musicae, and others.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called his multi-media chamber opera RedDust “a sweeping emotional experience” with “many moments of brilliance.” Commissioned by Sequitur, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, and Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA, RedDust was premiered at the Andy Warhol Museum’s “Off the Wall” performance art series in May 2007. Other recent commissions include Double Concerto for Baritone Saxophone, Percussion, and Orchestra, commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a new work for the Harry Partch Instrument Collection at Montclair State University, Under The Rainbow for flute and computer generated sound commissioned by Patti Monson, Shadow Waltz commissioned by Eric Moe, and Möbius Loop for Saxophone Quartet and Chamber Orchestra commissioned by the Rascher Saxophone Quartet and premiered in Düsseldorf Germany.

In the fall of 2001 he was a core participant in the American Composers Orchestra’s Orchestra Tech Festival and Conference in New York City where his piece Nü kuan tzu, for singers, samplers, and chamber orchestra, was one of twenty works featured on the festival. Other honors include four Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Music Fellowship Grants, a Heinz Endowments Creative Heights Award, two Fromm Foundation Commissions, a National Endowment for the Arts Music Fellowship Grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists Fellowship Grant. He has also received awards and fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Institute of Contemporary American Music, the Rockefeller Foundation, BMI, the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Foundation, and Yaddo.

His music has been recorded by Newband, the California EAR Unit, the Prism Players, pianist Loretta Goldberg, flutist Patti Monson, pianist Eric Moe, percussionist Michael Lipsey, cellists Theodore Mook and Michael Finckel and others for the Mode, Opus One, Albany, Capstone, and CRI Emergency Music labels, and is published by C.F. Peters Corporation.

He received degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and Princeton University and is currently Professor of composition and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Pittsburgh where he also co-directs the Music on the Edge new music series.

1992 Ph.D. in Music (Composition/Theory), Princeton University
Dissertation: "Vocal Music: Phonetics, Phonology, and Musical Structure"

1999 University of Pittsburgh Richard D. and Mary Jane Edwards Endowed
Publication Fund Grant

1981 First Prize - Institute of Contemporary American Music
Student Composers' Competition

1980 Rockefeller Foundation/New England Conservatory Contemporary American Chamber Works Award

2000 Composer in residence, Gould enter for Humanistic Studies, Claremont McKenna College

2004 Double Concerto for Baritone Saxophone, Percussion, and Orchestra, written for Kenneth Coon, Timothy Adams, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation

2003 Multi-Media Chamber Opera, commissioned by Sequitur in conjunction
with the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and Meet The Composer's Commissioning Music/USA Project

2002 Shadow Waltz, commissioned by Eric Moe

1999 Nü kuan tzu, Ancient Eyes, Maggies, CRI Emergency Music CD 831. Prism Players, Bradley Lubman, conductor.
California EAR Unit, Stephen Mosko, conductor.

1987 Le Jon Ra, ACA 50th Anniversary Recording Series, Opus One
#137. Michael Finckel, Theodore Mook, celli.

1988 Continental Drift, Opus One CD #135. Tom Varner, horn;
Charles Descarfino, percussion; Loretta Goldberg, piano.

1996 "Sound, Structure, and Signification in Wagner's 'Evening `Star' Aria,
"Music Analysis vol. 16, no. 1, 1997.

REFERENCES IN MAJOR PUBLICATIONS:

Eric Moe: "Beyond Right and Wrong Ways to Write Music: Tsontakis, Rosenblum, and
Diesendruck", Contemporary Music Review v. 10, Part 1, 1994

Ezra Sims: "Reflections on This and That", Perspectives of New Music, v. 29, no. 1, 1991

2003 Working Group, The Creativity Project, funded by the Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments

2002 Paper delivered, "Non-Linear Narrative Streams in My Recent (and not so recent) Music", at the Friday Colloquium Series, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh.

2001 Invited to be one of 25 core participants in the American Composers Orchestra’s Orchestra Tech Conference and Festival in NYC

1999 Panelist, CMU Studio for Creative Inquiry, Microsoft Technology and the Arts Grants

1999 Featured composer on WNIB radio's Composers Show in Chicago, Bruce Dufie, host. November 20, 1999.

1998 Featured Composer and guest lecturer at the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, November 5, 1998.

1998 Invited as a guest composer and participant in the Fromm Foundation Synposium at the University of California at San Diego, November 7, 1998.

1992 Panelist, Ohio Arts Council, Individual Artists Fellowships in Music Composition

1991- Founder and Co-director, Pittsburgh New Art Consortium, a presenting consortium comprised of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Three Rivers Arts Festival

1991 Paper delivered, "The Sound Structure of Text and How it Relates to the Musical Structure of a Wagner Aria",
at a joint meeting of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute and the Music Theory Society of New York State, Columbia University