Matt McBane, Composer

Matt McBane?’s music has been performed throughout America and Europe, with pieces for solo instruments, electronics, chamber groups, orchestras, film, and theater. Matt is the founder and director of the Carlsbad Music Festival which is beginning its second year in 2005. In the summer of 2003 he founded the contemporary music program at the Viana do Castelo International Music Festival in Portugal and will be entering his third year as composer-in-residence in the summer of 2005. In the summer of 2002 he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Matt is also on faculty at the California Institute of Music in San Diego where he teaches theory and composition, conducts the Southern California Sinfonietta, and runs the recording studio.

Matt began his musical studies with violin lessons with Donna Christmas at age five in Carlsbad, CA and currently lives in Los Angeles. In the spring of 2002, he graduated with a BM in composition from the University of Southern California?’s Thornton School of Music studying with Donald Crockett. He has also participated in several music festivals including the Bang On A Can Summer Institute, the Aspen Music Festival, Music03 in Cincinnati, and the International Institute of Music in Marktoberdorf, Germany.

Matt is a musician of wide-ranging tastes and interests. In addition to being a composer of concert music, he composes for film and theater, and is active as a conductor and violinist. As a violinist, Matt plays both acoustic and electric in a variety of settings from concert halls, to recording sessions, to the clubs of Hollywood. As a film composer, he has scored several independent films and conducted several recording sessions of his music at Paramount Studios in the famed ?“Studio M.?” Matt has also conducted the USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra, the USC Thornton Wind Symphony, and the Viano do Castelo International Music Festival Orchestra. As a complement to his musical pursuits, Matt enjoys surfing, traveling, art, and the outdoors.