Composer Matthew King by the railroad tracks at Grable, Indiana

Matthew King (born 1967) is a British

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. His works include

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, piano and chamber music, and choral and orchestral pieces. He has been described by

Judith Weir Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954) is a British composer serving as Master of the King's Music. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office. Biography Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish paren ...

, Master of the Queen’s Music, as “one of Britain's most adventurous composers, utterly skilled, imaginative and resourceful."

Operas

King has composed a number of operas and music theatre pieces which have earned him international recognition. Several of these pieces have a community component, combining amateurs and young people with professionals in the tradition of

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

Noye's Fludde ''Noye's Fludde'' is a one-act opera by the British composer Benjamin Britten, intended primarily for amateur performers, particularly children. First performed on 18 June 1958 at that year's Aldeburgh Festival, it is based on the 15th-century ...

. King's first chamber opera, ''

The Snow Queen "The Snow Queen" ( da, Snedronningen) is an original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samli ...

'', was composed for the British soprano

Jane Manning Jane Marian Manning OBE (20 September 193831 March 2021) was an English concert and opera soprano, writer on music, and visiting professor at the Royal College of Music. A specialist in contemporary classical music, she was described by one c ...

and her virtuoso ensemble Jane's Minstrels. ''

'' was described by one reviewer as "music of distinctive beauty with disarming theatre sense." The opera ''Jonah'' (libretto by Michael Irwin (author)) was commissioned by the

Canterbury Festival The Canterbury Festival is Kent's international festival of the arts. It takes place in Canterbury (England) and surrounding towns and villages (including Faversham, Whitstable and Margate) each October/November and includes performances of a vari ...

and first produced in

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...

in 1996; the dramatic cantata ''Gethsemane'' was premiered by

Florilegium In medieval Latin, a ' (plural ') was a compilation of excerpts or sententia from other writings and is an offshoot of the commonplacing tradition. The word is from the Latin ''flos'' (flower) and '' legere'' (to gather): literally a gathering of ...

at the

Spitalfields Festival Spitalfields Music (previously known as Spitalfields Festival, officially registered as Spitalfields Festival Ltd) is a music charity based in the Bethnal Green area of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Through musical events, the charity hop ...

in 1998; the

Brunel (opera project) The ''Brunel'' opera project is a collaboration between Matthew King (composer), Nye Parry (sound design) and Michael Irwin (libretto) to write a dramatic work based on the life and work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The opera was the subject of a sp ...

, featured on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's ''Setting Brunel to Music'' in October 2003; the community opera '' On London Fields'' (libretto by

Alasdair Middleton Alasdair Middleton is a leading British opera librettist and playwright with librettos commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Opera North and the Berlin Philharmonic among others. He is responsible for a series of important operatic collaborations ...

), winner of a

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

Award in 2005, was described by Stephen Pettitt in the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' as "unafraid of complexity, even when writing for very young performers. Some of the clashing rhythms and textural layerings are mind-boggling."; the dramatic cantata ''Hear our Voice'' (co-written with the British composer

Jonathan Dove Jonathan Dove (born 18 July 1959) is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (now Birmin ...

) was premiered in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in 2006; the chamber opera ''Das Babylon Experiment'' (German libretto by Michael Kerstan) was produced in

in 2008. King's experimental dramatic cantata ''Schoenberg in Hollywood'' (libretto by

), premiered in

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

's Milton Court concert hall in 2015. His comic faux-Baroque cantata ''Il Pastorale, l'Urbano e il Suburbano'' (libretto by

) was first performed at

Snape Maltings Snape Maltings is an arts complex on the banks of the River Alde at Snape, Suffolk, England. It is best known for its concert hall, which is one of the main sites of the annual Aldeburgh Festival. The original purpose of the Maltings was the ma ...

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the English county, county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the int ...

in 2015. King's chamber opera ''The Pied Piper'' (libretto by Michael Irwin (author)) was first produced at Stour Music Festival in 2015, with the British

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a s ...

Michael Chance Michael Chance CBE (born in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom 7 March 1955) is an English countertenor and the founder and Artistic Director of The Grange Festival. Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing u ...

in the title role. ''The Pied Piper'' was subsequently revived in a new revision with German translation (''Was Bleibt'') in productions in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

and

in 2018.

Instrumental works

King composed a range of instrumental works. His '' Robert Schumann in Three Pieces'' was recorded by the ''Avenue A'' ensemble and was described, by one critic, as "rich and sumptuous, with some spine-tingling moments." King has composed two string quartets (''Quartet 2001'' and ''Four Places in Yorkshire''), both premiered by the

Fitzwilliam String Quartet The Fitzwilliam Quartet (FSQ) is a British string quartet. The group was founded in 1968 by four Cambridge University, Cambridge undergraduates. There have been a number of changes in personnel over the years, but Alan George from the original qu ...

. His orchestral work Totentango was first performed in 2010 by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

. His 'Hitchcockian tone poem’ called ''Velocity'', for ensemble, chorus and big band, was premiered by the Aurora Orchestra in 2011. ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

'', a rhapsody for piano and chamber orchestra, was written in 2011 for the Savant pianist

Derek Paravicini Derek Paravicini (born 26 July 1979) is an English autistic savant known as a musical prodigy. He resides in London. Biography On 26 July 1979, Paravicini was born at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, He was born extremely prematurely, at ...

, with whom Matthew King had previously improvised on

in 2009. In 2018 King composed a new three-movement piano concerto for

, which premiered at the

Mainly Mozart Festival Mainly Mozart is a 501(c)3 non-profit based in San Diego, California. Mainly Mozart was created in 1988 by Maestro David Atherton and Executive Director Nancy Laturno, formerly of the San Diego Symphony, to give the people of Southern California and ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, conducted by

Michael Francis (conductor) Michael Francis (born 1976) is a British conductor. Biography Francis learnt the double bass as a youth. He was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, and graduated in 1997 from The Cardiff University School of Music. He played the do ...

King has experimented with unusual combinations of instruments and unconventional performing environments. The '' King's Wood Symphony'' (2007), for multiple horns, percussion, and an electronic score by Nye Parry, was composed for performance in a forest (originally King's Wood in Kent). Described as "a site-specific symphony, one that could never sound the same way twice," the work utilizes the harmonic spectra of natural horns and electronically altered horn sounds calling to each other across a vast performing space. '' King's Wood Symphony'' also gave rise to two chamber works, a trio for violin, horn and piano, and a nonet of horns with electronics, both premiered in the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...

in 2007. An ambitious community project in 2008 produced the ''Odyssean Variations'', premiered by the British cellist

Natalie Clein Natalie Clein (born Poole, Dorset) is a British classical cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein. Early life and education Clein started playing the cello at the age of six, and attended T ...

and an orchestra of young musicians from the London Borough of Hackney, at LSO St Luke's in

. ''Una Piccolo Sinfonia'' (2011) is a miniature symphony in three movements for an ensemble of nine piccolos. King embarked on a series of increasingly political protest pieces, including ''Fix This'' (2012) for piano, violin, cello, electric guitar and two percussionists, first performed at the ''

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

. Fix This'' references theme tunes and catchphrases associated with

Jimmy Savile Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Jim'll Fix It''. During his lifetime, he was well known ...

Piano works

King's piano miniature ''

Sonatas Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''canta ...

'' (2005) takes only a minute to perform and contains a succession of 32 bars and quotes all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in chronological order. King composed sequences of

nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' 'of the night') was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

polonaise (dance) The polonaise (, ; pl, polonez ) is a dance of Polish origin, one of the five Polish national dances in time. Its name is French for "Polish" adjective feminine/"Polish woman"/"girl". The original Polish name of the dance is Chodzony, meani ...

s and ''Contemplations'' (after

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

). He composed a cycle of single movement piano sonatas, in the tradition of Scarlatti, but inspired by a wide range of musicians and topics including

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

, Bernard Herrman,

Italian Opera Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous ...

Irish Folk Music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a Music genre, genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Irel ...

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

and

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...

, among others.

Educator

An alumnus of the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

, King is also an educator. From 1998 to 2001, he was head of composition at the

Yehudi Menuhin School The Yehudi Menuhin School is a Specialist school, specialist music school in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, England, founded in 1963 by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin. The current director of music is the British classical pianist Ashley Wass. ...

and is professor of composition at

Guildhall School of Music & Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

. For over a decade, he has led workshops for Hackney Music Development Trust. He has led workshops for ''Bridging Arts'' in

and guest-leads the ''Wigmore Study Group'' at the

. He has presented a number of programs on

and Radio 3.

Selected works

*''

'' (Chamber Opera) 1992 *''Jonah'' (opera/oratorio) 1996 *''

Gethsemane Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resona ...

'' (chamber oratorio) 1998 *'' Ash on the Ground'' (Symphonic Variations for Avenue A) 1998 *'' Love in a Life'' (soprano and ensemble) 2000 *'' Night Phantoms and Rocking Horses'' (ensemble) 2000 *''Quartet 2001'' (String Quartet) 2001 *''Four Places in Yorkshire'' (String Quartet) 2004 *'' On London Fields'' (Community Opera) 2004 (winner of 2005 RPS Education Award) *''

'' 2004 *''

'' (Piano solo) 2005 *''The Darker side of Mechanical Perfection'' (orchestra) 2005 *''Hear our Voice'' (community cantata) 2006 (written in collaboration with

br>
*'' King's Wood Symphony'' (horns, percussion and electronics) 2007 (written in collaboration with Nye Parry and commissioned by Stour Valley Arts and

*''Odyssean Variations'' (cello and orchestra) 2008 *''Das Babylon Experiment'' (chamber opera) 2008 *'' Totentango'' (commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra) 2009 *''

'' (piano and orchestra) 2011 *''Velocity'' (ensemble, big band, cellos and chorus) 2011 *''Una Piccolo Sinfonia'' (for 9 piccolos) 2001 *''A Glass Slipper'' (ballet) 2012 *''Out of the Depths'' (chorus and orchestra) 2012 *''Cure of Souls'' (string quartet, piano and electronics) 2012 *''Fix This'' (violin, cello, electric guitar, piano and percussion) 2012 *''Schoenberg in Hollywood'' (SSAATTBB, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion) 2015 (commissioned by Guildhall Vocal Dept. with words by

) *''Ringing Changes'' (SATB, harp, piano and electronics) 2015 (commissioned by the University of Kent for its 50th anniversary, with words by poet Patricia Debney) *''The Pied Piper'' (Chamber Opera) 2015 (commissioned by Stour Music) with libretto by Michael Irwin (author)) *''Il Pastorale, l'Urbano e il Suburbano'' (soprano, tenor and chorus, flute, violin, cello, harpsichord, theorbo, saxophone and electronics) 2015 (commissioned by the Brook Street Band, with words by

) *''Rumi Songs'' (mezzo-soprano and piano) 2015 *''Piano Sonatas (Volume 1)'' 2018 *''Piano Concerto'' (Piano and chamber orchestra) 2018 commissioned by the

References

Sources

*Maycock, Robert
King's Wood Symphony, Challock, Kent
Review of ''King's Wood Symphony'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 26 June 2007 (retrieved 29 April 2010) *Morley, Christophe
Culture: Riches at the stroke of a baton
''

The Birmingham Post The ''Birmingham Post'' is a weekly printed newspaper based in Birmingham, England, with a circulation of 2,545 and distribution throughout the West Midlands. First published under the name the ''Birmingham Daily Post'' in 1857, it has had a s ...

'', 31 December 2003. (retrieved via subscription 3 March 2008) *Odam, George and Bannan, Nicholas (eds.),
The Reflective Conservatoire: Studies in Music Education
', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2005 pp 151–178 *Pettitt, Stephen

''

'', 22 November 2004 (retrieved 29 April 2010) *White, Michael
Review of the first full staging of ''The Snow Queen''
''

'', 1 January 1996 (retrieved via subscription 3 March 2008) *White, Michael
"At last: a really festive festival"
(Review of King's ''Gethsemane'' at the

), ''

'', 7 June 1998 (retrieved 29 April 2010) *Rees, Carla

(Music Web International review Of King's ''Robert Schumann in Three Pieces''), April 2009

External links

http://www.gsmd.ac.uk/music/staff/teaching_staff/department/8-department-of-composition/392-matthew-king/]
BBC Radio 4 Documentary: Matthew King on Joseph Haydn in LondonBBC Radio 4 Documentary: Matthew King on the musical savant Derek ParaviciniMatthew King on Sound Cloud
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Matthew 1967 births Living people 20th-century classical composers English classical composers Place of birth missing (living people) English opera composers Male opera composers English male classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century British male musicians