BIOGRAPHY

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MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO’S Marianne Combs interviews me about music and painting at PAINTING WITH SOUND

“”A painter who composes a layered landscapes with rich textures, absorbing color depths, and dramatic swathes...a composer who pieces together fragments of 1/16-size Suzuki violin gestures into some of the most gorgeous landscapes you are likely to hear.” - avantimusicnews.com

Matthew Smith was born in 1953 in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Oberlin College where he studied music and painting. As a painter, Smith has shown his work in galleries in Ohio, Washington D.C., New York, And Minnesota. In 1999, he came to a sudden realization that his creative expression was no longer served by painting, and switched to music composition. Since 2009 he has also spent much of his time writing fiction.

Smith has been honored by a Sage Award (2010), a Bush Fellowship (2007), a McKnight Fellowship (2004), and was a 2006 Grammy Awards semi-finalist. His classical compositions are available on the 2005 audio release “ARCHAIC” from INNOVA RECORDINGS. Smith has also composed seven compositions for children’s books, as well as creating music in collaboration with dancer/choreographers Peter Witrak, Colleen Calahan, Cathy Wright, Deborah Jinza Thayer, Christine Maginnis, and Sharon Picasso.

“”The 9/11 attacks inspired an outpouring of moving musical tributes...Matthew Smith’s Symphony No. 4 surely ranks among the most gripping.” - Andrew Druckenbrod, Gramophone, June 2006