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Matthew Evan Taylor

Award-winning composer and saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor has been hailed as “a promising new voice” (Lawrence Budmen, Miami Herald) and a “risk taker” (Neil De La Flor, Huffington Post) whose music is “insistent and defiant…envelopingly hypnotic” (Alan Young, Lucid Culture).

His music has been performed across the United States and Europe by such ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Metropolis Ensemble, the Imani Winds, the Manhattan Girls Chorus and the Frost Symphony Orchestra.

He has also collaborated with visual artists and dancers; most recently, Matthew and visual artist Dannielle Tegeder collaborated on a series of graphic scores, premiered at the Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago. He has also performed with Elliott Sharp, Marilyn Crispell, Tatsuya Nakatani, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, and dancer Katherine Kramer.

Matthew is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Middlebury College in Vermont.

The pianist Matthew mentions in the interview can be seen here on her youtube channel.

The book he mentions is The Origins of Creativity, by Edward O. Wilson.

Matthew Evan Taylor and Priscilla Marrero perform before the premiere of their collaboration with visual artist Ferrán Martin (not pictured), the Emerald House. The trio work under the name [ce n’est pas nous] and have performed in the US and France
The Firebird Duo, featuring pianist Asiya Korepanova and Matthew Evan Taylor. The group is currently performing the complete set of compositions for alto sax and piano by American composer Paul Creston.
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3 COMMENTS

  1. […] Matthew Evan Taylor is a composer, performer, and improviser. At any given time he has many irons in the fire including composition commissions for clients across the country. Additionally, Taylor works on personal compositions. In the realm of improvisation, he frequently works with dancers and recently was in New York to collaborate with Yale art critic Molly Zuckerman-Hartung. Often Taylor is asked to sit in with ensembles or play with or for other solo artists and composers. In short, his schedule is packed and diverse. It is fair to say that Taylor is very much in demand. Growing up, Taylor listened to jazz greats. He has played alto saxophone since age nine but it was not until much later after years of working as a performer and recording artist that he found his way to composition. The Reaction is a piece written in the wake of the 2016 election. Taylor used the piece to process the new reality using the classic tools of journalism who, what, where, when, why. Taylor’s thoughts turned to the build-up of change that allowed the election results. Alternatively, there is Euphoria which is the first in a series of 13 commissioned pieces. The composition attempts to capture the vivid personality of the woman who commissioned it. Taylor is presently a visiting professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. To sample the works mentioned here, and others, listen to the complete interview. […]

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