Board Member

“The city’s leading showcase for vital new music by emerging composers” per the New Yorker, MATA is a not-for-profit organization that commissions, presents, and supports the music of a wide array of young composers from around the globe. MATA’s directors are motivated by a desire to create community among composers in the early stages of their careers, especially those whose work does not fit into existing institutions. In providing developing composers with professional performances of their work and valuable connections to colleagues, MATA is a catalyst for their entry into American musical life.

The leading festival of new music in America and the only presenter devoted solely to the music of early career composers, MATA presents an internationally recognized festival in New York City each spring consisting of music by emerging composers selected from a free global call for submissions. MATA also presents an acclaimed concert series, as well as MATA Jr., an evening of music by pre-college composers.

To date, MATA has commissioned seventy works, and has presented over three-hundred performances of pieces by young composers. Commissioned works have been scored for a broad range of ensembles: from orchestra to solo voice, live electronics to gamelan ensemble. Performers on past MATA festivals have included: the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gamelan Son of Lion, The Knights Chamber Orchestra, So Percussion, L’Arsenale (Italy), Signal, JACK Quartet, Quartet New Generation, Calder Quartet, Argento Ensemble, Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne, Either/Or, NOW Ensemble, Newspeak, VOX Vocal Ensemble, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and many more.

MATA has a great record of recognizing talent early on. Rome Prize, Berlin Prize and Guggenheim Fellows, Macarthur “Genius” Francisco Nuñez and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon are among the many composers who have had early performances at the MATA Festival.

The New York Times has called MATA“nondogmatic, even antidogmatic;” The Wall Street Journal has said that it “tells us a lot about how composers are thinking now.”

Board meets quarterly at various locations in New York City, and also via Zoom. Meetings are arranged at mutually convenient times, usually 5:30pm. Financial commitment is minimal. Current board is listed on site and includes composers, performers, a Yale composition professor, and a lawyer, among others.