Finding Conceit and Humor in Song (ft. Matthew Ricketts)

Matthew Ricketts (b. 1986, British Columbia) is a Canadian composer based in New York City. His music moves from extremes of presence and absence, from clamor to quietude, at once reticent and flamboyant. Matthew’s music has been called “lyrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced” (The American Academy of Arts and Letters) and is noted for his “effervescent and at times prickly sounds,” “hypnotically churning exploration of melody” (ICareIfYouListen) as well as its “tart harmonies and perky sputterings” (The New York Times). He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow.

His works have been performed internationally by JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Flux Quartet, the Fromm Players, Quatuor Bozzini, the Chiara String Quartet; vocalists Tony Arnold, Sharon Harms, Lauren Worsham, Karim Sulayman and Ekmeles; Collage New Music, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Ensemble Paramirabo, Argento and Talea Ensemble; soloists Jean-Willy Kunz, Nathaniel LaNasa, Sara Laimon and Julia Den Boer; and orchestras including the Aspen Philharmonic (Robert Spano, cond.), Esprit Orchestra (Alex Pauk, cond.), the Minnesota Orchestra (Osmo Vänskä, cond.), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Kent Nagano, cond.), the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. Matthew was Composer-Collaborator-In-Residence at East Carolina University from 2016-2018.

Active as a writer as well as a composer, Matthew has published articles, reviews, poetry and libretti, and has worked closely with authors and poets Lauren J. Rogener, Paul Legault, Christian Schlegel, Mark Campbell, Royce Vavrek, Klara du Plessis and Tomson Highway on multiple collaborative projects. Other collaborative endeavors include scoring the feature-length film Glob Lessons (Tribeca Film Festival premiere, 2021) and recent projects with dancer-choreographers Brendan Drake and Jennifer Nichols.

Matthew holds degrees in music composition and theory from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music (B.Mus. 2009) and Columbia University (DMA 2017). Matthew’s principal mentors include Brian Cherney, John Rea, Chris Paul Harman, George Lewis and Fred Lerdahl. He was a Core Lecturer at Columbia University from 2017-2020.

🌐 https://matthewricketts.com/

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🕒 Timestamps

00:00 “Swivel,” from Outtake (a song cycle-in-progress with Royce Vavrek)

16:12 “Munch Blur,” from Outtake

35:46 “Fast Backward,” from Unruly Sun

42:21 Humor in music?

50:30 “Then as now,” from Unruly Sun