Dylan Mattingly
Encyclopedia
Dylan Mattingly, born March 18, 1991 in Oakland, California
is an American composer, conductor, cellist, pianist, bassist, guitarist, and singer from Berkeley, California
. His music draws from a diverse range of styles and musicians, and he himself says that he "is influenced alike by John Coolidge Adams
, Olivier Messiaen
, Magnus Lindberg
, Joni Mitchell
, and the old American blues and folk field recordings of the Lomaxes." Mattingly was the co-director of Formerly Known as Classical for two years—a youth-run new music organization which played only music written within their lifetimes, and is currently the co-director of Contemporaneous, a youth-run new music ensemble based in the Hudson Valley of New York.
On September 24th, 2011, Contemporaneous presented the world premiere of Mattingly's Atlas of Somewhere on the Way to Howland Island, a forty-minute work for chamber orchestra inspired by Amelia Earhart
's final journey, and about which he writes "Atlas of Somewhere on the Way to Howland Island is for all those voyagers between horizons; for those—past and present—who have flown into storms, for those floating dreamscapes out beyond the curvature of the sunrise, for those that reach escape velocity, for when even your endless arms can’t rearrange the constellations."
Sarah Cahill
, a consistent advocate of Mattingly's work, and who performed his solo piano piece Night 3 at the Other Minds
New Music Séance 2008 says of Mattingly, "Dylan is inspired by a diverse range of music including the blues, Bob Dylan, jazz, and the improv music that he himself performs. With many composers, it’s an awkward fusion of classical and pop music, but Dylan makes it work. You get the sense he approaches these disparate idioms from the inside rather than from the outside." Recently, Mattingly's work for large orchestra Homeward Angel (Music for a Soundtrack to Clouds) was premiered by the Symphony Parnassus under the direction of Stephen Paulson. The work was called "a fascinating mix of postminimalistic, trance-music tinged, John Adamsesque, very "new" and easily accessible music — so boldly and creatively eclectic that it appears entirely original..." by the San Francisco Classical Voice.
Mattingly currently attends the Bard College Conservatory of Music
, where he studies with George Tsontakis
, Joan Tower
, and Kyle Gann
. Mattingly is also a member of the multi-instrumental free-jam folk trio Ghosts of Electricity, based in Berkeley, California.
Mattingly has also previously studied composition with Katrina Wreede, Yiorgos Vassilandonakis,and David Tcimpidis, and conducting with David Ramadanoff & Nathan Madsen. He is a singer and guitarist with the Bay Area funk/blues band, Funky Bus & the U-Turns, and a member of the inprov string quartet, the Superdelegates.
Mattingly is also a pitcher, painter, and a playwright.
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
is an American composer, conductor, cellist, pianist, bassist, guitarist, and singer from Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. His music draws from a diverse range of styles and musicians, and he himself says that he "is influenced alike by John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
, Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
, Magnus Lindberg
Magnus Lindberg
Magnus Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He is currently the composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic.-Education:...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, and the old American blues and folk field recordings of the Lomaxes." Mattingly was the co-director of Formerly Known as Classical for two years—a youth-run new music organization which played only music written within their lifetimes, and is currently the co-director of Contemporaneous, a youth-run new music ensemble based in the Hudson Valley of New York.
On September 24th, 2011, Contemporaneous presented the world premiere of Mattingly's Atlas of Somewhere on the Way to Howland Island, a forty-minute work for chamber orchestra inspired by Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
's final journey, and about which he writes "Atlas of Somewhere on the Way to Howland Island is for all those voyagers between horizons; for those—past and present—who have flown into storms, for those floating dreamscapes out beyond the curvature of the sunrise, for those that reach escape velocity, for when even your endless arms can’t rearrange the constellations."
Sarah Cahill
Sarah Cahill (pianist)
Sarah Cahill , an American pianist born in Washington, D.C., is a long-time resident of Berkeley, California. She is best known for performances of new works, many of them written for her...
, a consistent advocate of Mattingly's work, and who performed his solo piano piece Night 3 at the Other Minds
Other Minds
Other Minds is a San Francisco based private 501 not-for-profit organization, founded in 1992 by Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman...
New Music Séance 2008 says of Mattingly, "Dylan is inspired by a diverse range of music including the blues, Bob Dylan, jazz, and the improv music that he himself performs. With many composers, it’s an awkward fusion of classical and pop music, but Dylan makes it work. You get the sense he approaches these disparate idioms from the inside rather than from the outside." Recently, Mattingly's work for large orchestra Homeward Angel (Music for a Soundtrack to Clouds) was premiered by the Symphony Parnassus under the direction of Stephen Paulson. The work was called "a fascinating mix of postminimalistic, trance-music tinged, John Adamsesque, very "new" and easily accessible music — so boldly and creatively eclectic that it appears entirely original..." by the San Francisco Classical Voice.
Mattingly currently attends the Bard College Conservatory of Music
Bard College Conservatory of Music
The Bard College Conservatory of Music is a program of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Founded in 2005, the program is unique among music conservatories in the United States in that all undergraduate students are required to participate in a five-year dual-degree program, in which...
, where he studies with George Tsontakis
George Tsontakis
George Tsontakis is an American composer and conductor.Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978, and later with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome...
, Joan Tower
Joan Tower
Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...
, and Kyle Gann
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann is an American professor of music, critic and composer born in Dallas, Texas. As a critic for The Village Voice and other publications he has been a supporter of progressive music including such Downtown movements as postminimalism and totalism.- As composer :As a composer his...
. Mattingly is also a member of the multi-instrumental free-jam folk trio Ghosts of Electricity, based in Berkeley, California.
Mattingly has also previously studied composition with Katrina Wreede, Yiorgos Vassilandonakis,and David Tcimpidis, and conducting with David Ramadanoff & Nathan Madsen. He is a singer and guitarist with the Bay Area funk/blues band, Funky Bus & the U-Turns, and a member of the inprov string quartet, the Superdelegates.
Mattingly is also a pitcher, painter, and a playwright.
External links
- dylanmattingly.com
- hotairmusic.tumblr.com/post/465963234/why-is-new-music-relevant-dylan-mattingly
- http://www.contemporaneous.org/