Matthew Charles Saunders (b. 1976, Austin, Texas, USA) is a composer, conductor and music educator of growing regional and national reputation.  Dr. Saunders is currently Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, where he serves as Chair of the Music Department.  His music has been performed by school and professional ensembles and performers in Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Connecticut, New York, Illinois and the United Kingdom, and is slated for upcoming performances in North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Alabama.  Dr. Saunders has received commissions for his band, vocal and chamber music, and his current projects include pieces a song cycles for soprano Suzanne Fleming-Atwood and Carole Jean Ott, and incidental music for a one-act play about the Dust Bowl as well as a set of sonatinas for woodwind instruments, music for live electronics and a suite for unaccompanied trombone.  His Progress Through Knowledge for band and chorus was commissioned to commemorate the Centennial of Oklahoma Panhandle State University, and was premiered there in October 2009.  His Passacagliafor flute and cello was selected as a winning piece in the 2009 New Music Hartford 60/60 Composition Competition, and he will be a featured composer on the February 2010 Composers Salon of the Oklahoma Composers Association.

Dr. Saunders earned the degrees of Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the Ohio State University and the degree of Bachelor of Music in music education and trombone performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  His composition teachers included Donald Harris, Jan Radzynski, Thomas Wells, Joel Hoffman and Wes Flinn, and he has studied trombone with Joseph Duchi and Tony Chipurn.    During his time at Ohio State, Dr. Saunders received the Ruth Friscoe Prize for his Sevens, the A. Peter Costanza Distinguished DMA Document Award, the Donald and Marilyn Harris Scholarship, a University Fellowship and was twice named Distinguished Graduate Student in Theory and Composition.   He also held the position of Composer-in-Residence with the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra.  Dr. Saunders graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati, where he was the recipient of the Albert Voorheis Scholarship, received a rating of Superior for his senior trombone recital and passed his senior performance board “With Honors.”