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Biography
Composer Matthew Peterson has made his mark as a unique new voice in the world of music: “truly beautiful” (The Washington Post), “startlingly immediate” (Wall Street Journal), “darkly brilliant” (Classical Review) and “gritty, colorful, often profane and clearly true-to-life” (Opera News). He is a composer who moves dynamically between socially-relevant contemporary operas, vast orchestral works celebrating a great and powerful nature, playful and virtuosic solos, and shimmering sacred choral works.
A musical adventurer of great breadth and sensitivity, Matthew Peterson composes bravely. Here is seriousness, humor, power, tenderness, wilfulness - the grand and sublime as well as the fragile and delicate. His music has been commissioned and performed around the world by leading ensembles including the Minnesota Orchestra, Swedish Radio Choir, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, The St. Olaf Choir, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet and the Swedish Radio Choir.
CURRENT ACTIVITY
In recent years he has received commissions from the Swedish Royal Academy (for the Swedish Radio Choir, Eric Ericson's Chamber Choir, Norwegian Academy, and others), Musik I Dalarna (for Dalasinfoniettan), Magnum Chorum, Lund Choral Festival (Musik I Syd), Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Sofia Vokalensemble, Uppsala Vokalensemble, organist Bengt Tribukait, percussionist Magdalena Meitzner, The St Olaf Orchestra, the Metropolitan Orchestra, and Gustaf Sjökvists Chamber Choir. As an orchestrator his crossover collaborations for Gränslandet symphonic festival include performing artists Mariam the Believer and Skator.
Upcoming premiere performances include Sofia Vokalensemble's October 2021 premiere of Three Motets at Lund Choral Festival, the 2022 premiere and Minnesota & Pacific-Northwest tour of Symphony 1: The Singing Wilderness with the St. Olaf Orchestra, the co-premiere of The Singing Wilderness by Metropolitan Symphony and Northern Symphony (MN), the 2022 premiere of Bronze Age Religion by Magdalena Meitzner, the 2022-23 premiere of a new work for the Swedish Radio Choir and Eric Ericson's Chamber Choir, and the 2023-24 world premiere of Peterson's second symphony by Dalasinfoniettan.
Recent and upcoming recordings include the internationally-acclaimed original-cast album of the opera Voir Dire (RedHouse, 2020), In Paradisum with Sofia Vokalensemble, featuring Cantate Domino (Footprint, 2019), Light Fields with Uppsala Vokalensemble (Footprint, 2020), smooth fat nasty, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet's recording of Peterson's complete saxophone works (European Gramophone, Dec 2021), and Lux Aeterna with Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör (2021-22).
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Peterson's numerous awards include the Sven-David Sandström Award for Choral Composition, ASCAP Nissim Prize for best orchestral work, grand prize in the Uppsala Composer Competition, and the Fort Worth Frontiers award for new opera. He has received grants and funding from Fulbright, STIM, ASCAP, Längmanska Kulturfond, Kulturrådet (the Swedish Arts Council), Konstnärsnämnden (the Swedish Arts Grants Committee), the Wallenberg Foundation, Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation, Svensk Musik, and the Swedish Society of Composers (FST). His choral, chamber and solo music has been featured on international festivals including Svensk Musikvår, Lund Choral Festival, and Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Karuizawa International Choral Festival (Japan), Boston Ahts (USA) and Purpur (South Africa). Peterson's choral works are published by Gehrmans and Hinshaw, and his remaining works are available from Svensk Musik/Swedish Music Information Center.
EDUCATION
Peterson holds degrees from the Gotland School of Music Composition (artist diploma), Indiana University School of Music (M.M.) and St. Olaf College (B.M.), where his teachers included Sven-David Sandström and Mary Ellen Childs. Currently head instructor of music composition at Lilla Akademien, Matthew has also served on the faculty of the Gotland School of Music Composition (Visby, Sweden) and as an Associate Instructor in music composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Matthew is an avid outdoorsman and lives in Dalarna, Sweden.
Productions
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Artist Information
All information is derived from OPERA America's Season Schedule of Performances and titles databases which date back to 1991. OPERA America is constantly updating this data. If you feel that a work or an artist has been omitted or that information is incorrect, please use the linked forms below. Title Information Form Artist Information Form
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