BIOGRAPHY (abridged)
MATTHEW GREENBAUM was born in New York City in 1950. He studied composition with Stefan Wolpe and Mario Davidovsky and holds a Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Serge Koussevitzky Music Funds/Library of Congress Commission for a new work for the Freiburg Ensemble SurPlus, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund and the New York Foundation of the Arts. His works have been presented/performed/commissioned by the Darmstadt Summer Festival, the Leningrad Spring Festival, the Jakart Festival (Indonesia), the Hallische Musiktage, the Fromm Foundation, the Meet the Composer/ Readers Digest Commissioning Fund, Ensemble SurPlus (Freiburg), Nuova Consonanza (Rome), Ensemble 21 (Odense), the Da Capo Chamber Players, Cygnus, Parnassus, Fred Sherry, Marc-André Hamelin, David Holzman, Stephanie Griffin, the Momenta String Quartet, Network for New Music/Penn Council on the Arts, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary Music, Orchestra 2001, Christopher Taylor and the Riverside Symphony, and the Houston Symphony.
His works are published by Tunbridge Music. Cygnus Music and the American Composers Alliance. They have been recorded for Antes, Centaur and CRI. An all-Greenbaum CD has been released on Centaur Records. The American Academy of Arts and Letters has sponsored the releast of five works on the Furious Artisans label via iTunes.
Greenbaum is also a video artist, whose works include APPROXIMATE MAN (video setting of L’homme approximatif for soprano, viola and computer sound), and the music videos ONTOGENY and ON BROADWAY.
Greenbaum was artistic director of the Stefan Wolpe Centennial Festival NY (2002-3). He is a professor of composition at Temple University. He is currently at work on a book, Musical Dialectic, a study of the interrelationship of musical and philosophical structure.
Greenbaum was artistic director of the Stefan Wolpe Centennial Festival NY (2002-3). He is a professor of composition at Temple University. He is currently at work on a book, Musical Dialectic, a study of the interrelationship of musical and philosophical structure.
An all-Greenbaum CD is available on Centaur Records (2004). It includes UNTIMELY OBSERVATIONS for viola and piano, A FLOATING ISLAND (chamber opera), CASTELNAU for string quartet and PROSPECT RETROSPECT for cello and piano. Performers include Fred Sherry, cello; Blair McMillen and David Holzman piano; Stephanie Griffin, viola, the Momenta String Quartet and Network for New Music.
EDUCATION
1985 Ph.D. in Composition, City University of NY Graduate Center 1985
1974 MA in Composition, City College of New York
1971 BA in Music, Lehman College NYC
1969-71 Private Studies in Composition with Stefan Wolpe
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
2003-5 Acting Chair, Department of Composition
1998 Professor of Composition
1994 Associate Professor of Composition, Temple University
1990 Graduate Faculty
1988-94 Assistant Professor of Composition
2004- Board of Directors, American Composers Alliance
2003-present Vice-president, Stefan Wolpe Society
1992-present Executive Board, Stefan Wolpe Society
2003 Outside reader, grants-in-aid: Graduate Center of the City University of NY
2002-3 Artistic Director, Stefan Wolpe Centennial Festival NYC
December 1991 Guest Lecturer, St. Petersburg Conservatory
1987-88 Lecturer in Music Composition
1989-2005 Vice-President, League/ISCM
1988 President, League/ISCM
Guest Lecturer, University of Michigan, October 1987
1985-87 Resident Composer, Alabama Shakespeare Festival 1985-87
SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS AND COMMISSIONS
2007 - CAP Grant, American Music Center for
2005 - Academy Award: American Academy of Arts and Letters
2001 - Riverside Symphony International Composers Readings
1996 - Ovidiana, a chamber opera in three acts
..........Commission, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts/
..........Network for New Music, Meet the Composer Grant,
..........Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Grant
1995 - Grant, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
1994 - Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: Fromm Music Foundation Commission
1991 - Psalter for mezzo-soprano and seven instruments
..........Commission, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
..........Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Grant
1991 - Fund for US Artists Travel Grant (Leningrad Spring Festival)
1990 - Grant, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
1989 - Amulet for piano - Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commission
..........for a consortium of pianists (Gilbert Kalish,
..........Marc-André Hamelin, David Holzman, Randall Hodgkinson,
..........Kathleen Supové and Anthony De Mare) and WGBH-Boston
..........Meet the Composer Grants 2003, -97,-89, -87, -82, -81, -80, -79, -78, -77
1986 - Fellowship, New York Foundation on the Arts Fellowship, John Simon
1984 - Guggenheim Foundation
1982 - Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Recordings
1981 - 76, -75 The Composers Conference, Fellowships
1973 - SAI Award, First Prize
REVIEWS
Classical CD Reviews Nov. 2004, Jonathan Woolf: Nod Quitet Ox
Interview, Leipziger Volkszeitung July 15, 2004: “Intellectueller Neutöner”
Badische Zeitung 6/30/04: “Mit Paukenschlag: Yun, Czernowin und andere:
Das Ensemble Surplus in Freiburg
Seen and Heard International Concert Review: R.W, Emerson Festival, hosted by
John Hollander, New York Society for Ethical Culture, May 13th 2004
Leslie Kandell, American Record Guide Jan-Feb 2003: “Wolpe gets his due”
Paul Griffiths, NY Times: "Wolpe at 100, Still Full of Anger”
Paul Griffiths, NY Times: “Two Restless Piano Works Come Home” March 3,1998
Alex Ross, NY Times: “Parnassus Plays Wolpe” September 5, 1992
James R. Oestreich, NY Times: “When Old is New and Modern is History” October 30, 1996
Bernard Holland, NY Times: “Silence and Salesmanship in a Program of New Music,” October 8, 1994
Bernard Holland, NY Times: “Words Celebrate Composer” May 6, 1993
Anthony Tommassini, The Boston Globe: “The ever-changing sounds of Randall Hodgkinson,” February 4 1992
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “School’s Contemporary Players open season” November 4, 1997
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “James Freeman with Orchestra 2001” June 1, 1996
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Oboist as muse and interpreter” October 28, 1999
Lesley Valdes, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Berio Work at Settlement School” April 25, 1992
American Record Guide March/April 1998: Explorations:
New American Piano Music—Pleskow, Cornicello, Greenbaum, Boros, Ytrehus”
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Gearing up for his opera’s premiere at Temple”
May 2, 1997
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “An operatic retelling of 3 Ovid tales” May 7, 1997
Jennifer Dunning, NY Times: “Trying to Get the Most from Going the Wrong Way” November 10, 1994
Andrew Porter, The New Yorker, “Parnassus” March 15, 1987
Leighton Kerner, The Village Voice: “Riding the Twain” October 8, 1994
Neue Westfalische: Maxine Neuman und Paul Posnak begeisterten mit ihrem Vortrag
March 19, 1981
Westfalen-Blatt #60: “Europäische Erstaufführungen amerikanischer Komponisten”
Westfalen-Blatt Nr. 66: :Zuhörer verspürten echte musikalische Leidenschaft”
Musikalnaie Kadri [Leningrad] #11
Richard Buell, The Boston Globe: “Fromm Players introduce compelling, creative pieces” March 29, 2000