Mathew Rosenblum


Mathew Rosenblum is an American composer whose works have been commissioned, recorded and performed by musical groups such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, FLUX Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and Newband among other ensembles, in venues throughout North America, Europe and Asia including the Andy Warhol Museum, Leipzig's Gewandhaus, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Thailand's Prince Mahidol Hall, as well as Merkin Hall, the Guggenheim Museum, the Miller Theatre, The Kitchen, Carnegie Recital Hall, and Symphony Space in New York City. Rosenblum's music has been recorded on such labels as Mode Records, New World Records, Albany Records, Capstone Records, Opus One Records, New Focus Recordings, and the Composers Recordings Inc. label, and has been published by Edition Peters, of Leipzig, London, and New York.

Early life

Rosenblum was born in Flushing, Queens and began playing the saxophone at age eight. He attended the High School of Music and Art as an instrumentalist, where his interest turned to free jazz. At Music & Art, he met jazz performers Anthony Coleman and David Krakauer, and performed with them from 1970-73 at venues throughout New York City. In college, Rosenblum studied music composition at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music and Princeton University with composers Milton Babbitt, Donald Martino, Paul Lansky, Jaki Byard, and Malcolm Peyton, while also working privately with composer Burr Van Nostrand. During and after his time at NEC and Princeton, Rosenblum's work was also closely associated with composers Lee Hyla, Ezra Sims, Dean Drummond and Eric Moe.

Career

Rosenblum joined the Department of Music of the University of Pittsburgh in 1991, where he has been a Professor of Music Composition and Theory, Chair of the Department of Music, and codirector of both the "Music on the Edge" new music series as well as the biannual "Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival". Among the awards he has received in over four decades as a composer include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Music Fellowship Grant, two Fromm Foundation Commissions, a Barlow Endowment Commission, several MacDowell Colony and Yaddo Residency Fellowships, and multiple "Featured Composer" and "Composer in Residence" honors at music festivals and colleges in the United States and Asia.

Music

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians has described Rosenblum as "a leading voice in American microtonal music attempts a synthesis of elements from classical, jazz, rock and world music in his work". New York's WQXR-FM has cited "Rosenblum's customary 21-note-per-octave microtonal scale, combining the 12 notes of the piano with intervals that fall somewhere between the keys", while The New York Times has called Rosenblum a composer who "mix surreal microtonal scales seductive melodies". A 2018 review in Stereophile Magazine described Rosenblum as a composer who "blends percussion, acoustic instruments, electronics, voice, and microtonal elements in visceral, moving ways." Many of Rosenblum’s compositions have employed a similar "integration of diverse compositional elements". Rosenblum himself has cited his "long-standing love for Javanese music... and the music of LaMonte Young" as central influences on his work.

Honors and Awards