Matt Marks (1980-2018) was a composer of darkly comic opera-theater works and instrumental/electronic music that experimented with narrative and pop idioms. A founding member of Alarm Will Sound, he also performed as a French hornist, vocalist, and keyboardist with such acclaimed new music ensembles as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), ACME, and the Wordless Orchestra. He recorded for Universal Music, Warp Records, Nonesuch, Cantaloupe Music, New Amsterdam, among many independent labels. Matt appeared as a soloist with the LA Philharmonic and live on This American Life at BAM. As a composer and arranger, Matt’s work has been called “staggeringly creative” by The New York Times, “obsessively detailed” by New York Magazine, and The LA Times writes that there is “no fighting this music.” His work has been presented at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, The Barbican Center, The Bang on a Can Marathon, 21st Century Liederabend, and live on WNYC radio. Commissions include those from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Alarm Will Sound, HERE Arts Center, the Bushwick Starr, Hotel Elefant, and JFund. Artist residencies include University of Rochester (2016) –where he was also a visiting professor– and HERE Arts Center (2014-17). Matt was also on faculty at The New School.

His album The Little Death: Vol. 1, a post-Christian nihilist pop opera, was praised as “cheerily seductive” by The New York Times and “unabashedly boppy, baroquely multireferential, then suddenly sentimental” by Time Out New York. Other projects include his opera Mata Hari for Prototype Festival –with the support of NYSCA; Songs of Love and Violence, an album of his vocal + ensemble works with Hotel Elefant; and Headphone Splitter, a slasher pop opera. Matt lived in Brooklyn where we also worked as a freelance arranger and producer.

- adapted from MattMarksMusic.com