Matt Curlee creates music that reflects the connections between the natural world and the human psyche.  As a composer, his recent work has focused on the interplay between the abstract spaces of fundamental physics and musical space. Recent commissions have included works for the U.S. Air Force Band, New Conductors’ Orchestra NYC, the Eastman Percussion Ensemble, RPS Collective, and many other solo performers, ensembles, and collaborators of all kinds, including visual artists, dancers, animators, scientists, and filmmakers.  Recent performances have spanned three continents, and his setting of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s seminal short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” created in collaboration with theatrical percussionist Nikki Joshi, was produced as a short film in association with the Rebanks Family Foundation.

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In 1995 Matt was one of the youngest organists ever to win the prestigious Grand Prix de Chartres.  In 2002, with four other Eastman alums, he founded Neos, a contemporary jazz chamber ensemble. Neos toured and recorded for several years, Curlee serving as its artistic director and principal composer, and ran a commissioning program that generated new music from other composers around the world. 

 

Matt is an assistant professor of music theory at the Eastman School of Music, where he holds the prestigious Eisenhart Award for Excellence of Teaching. When not writing, performing or teaching, Matt likes to be found on the side of a mountain somewhere.