Upcoming Performances
March 18-19: Premiere performances of Ganz Alleine
1-30-2026: My setting of the text of the German folk song Ganz Alleine will be a part of two concerts in a collaboration between the Cleveland Composers Guild and the modern languages and music departments of John Carroll University celebrating America's 250th anniversary through a look at its Native and immigrant heritage. The setting is for soprano, baritone, and piano.
Performances are Wednesday, March 18 at 3:30pm and Thursday, March 19 at 7:00pm.
More information here.
Performances are Wednesday, March 18 at 3:30pm and Thursday, March 19 at 7:00pm.
More information here.
February 4: Cleveland Premiere of Meditation II
1-30-2026: Trumpeter Amanda Bekeny and pianist Megan Denman will give the Ohio premiere of my 2024 work Meditation II on Wednesday, Febraury 4 at 12noon as part of Trinity Cathedral's Brown Bag Concert Series. More information here.
Updates
1-30-2026: I've posted the recording of the Lakeland Civic Orchestra's premiere of my symphony, and also the talk that I gave during the week prior. Check out my YouTube channel for these and other videos!
11-1-2025: I've been selected as a mentor composer for the Contemporary Youth Orchestra's CY We Compose program, and I'm excited to get to work with a young student locally. I will be taking them through the process of composing and premiering a work for woodwind ensemble over the next few months. More on this to come!
UPDATE 1-30-2026: This has been a very enjoyable collaboration so far, and I'm looking forward to helping my mentee finish up his work and prepare it for performance in April.
1-30-2026: I am once again slated to write a piece for the Cleveland Composers Guild Creativity: Learning Through Experience Project, with a performance slated for May 2026 at the Music Settlement. My collaborator this year is a singing classical guitarist.
New Works
1-30-2026: A somewhat unexpected project this fall and winter has been a collaboration with flutist Erin Helgeson Torres on a new concerto for flute and strings. The result, I become what we become when we are becoming is an exciting 12-minute work that I hope we can realize in the next year or so!
1-30-2026: The other piece I completed this fall was a set of Four Elements for Timpani, for long-time Lakeland Civic Orchestra timpanist Darrell Garlock, who had to back away from the group for health issues, but also has his own set of instruments for practice at home. They are named for the four classical elements, Earth, Air, Wind, and Fire, and are a fun little set that I will be trying to get out there shortly.
1-30-2026: The other piece I completed this fall was a set of Four Elements for Timpani, for long-time Lakeland Civic Orchestra timpanist Darrell Garlock, who had to back away from the group for health issues, but also has his own set of instruments for practice at home. They are named for the four classical elements, Earth, Air, Wind, and Fire, and are a fun little set that I will be trying to get out there shortly.
On the horizon...
9-10-2025: Left to my own devices, I have some ideas for musicians to approach. I would like to continue my Meditation series of pieces for solo instrument and piano, a "book 2" of the sonatinas I wrote before, during, and just after graduate school. I'm interested in another piano sonata, a work for band, or setting of any text people are interested in for choral or solo voices.
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(c) 2014-2025 by Matthew C. Saunders
(c) 2014-2025 by Matthew C. Saunders
