Matthew Burtner

Matthew Burtner is Associate Professor of composition and computer technologies at the University of Virginia where he directs the Interactactive Media Research Group (IMRG) and is the Associate Director of the VCCM. Originally from Alaska, he studied philosophy, composition, saxophone and computer music at St. Johns College, Tulane University (BFA Summa Cum Laude 1993), Iannis Xenakis's UPIC Center (1993-94), the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (MM 1997), and Stanford University's CCRMA (DMA 2002). An Invited Researcher at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou in 2005/2006 in Paris, Burtner is the inventor of the Metasaxaphone, MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble), and NOMADS (Network-Operational Mobile Applied Digital System). His original computer music research is presented regularly at international conferences, and has been published by journals such as Organized Sound, the Journal of New Research and the Leonardo Music Journal.

Burtner's original music has been described as "simmering, pulsating and thunderous" by the Norwegian Fremover, and The Wire has called it "some of the most eerily effective electroacoustic music I've heard". His music combines instrumental ensembles, computer technology, interactive acoustics and multimedia. He has been Composer-In-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Cite des Arts in Paris, Musikene in San Sebastian, and the IUA/Phonos Institute in Barcelona.

First prize winner in the Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music Competition and a 2009 Howard Brown Fellow of Brown University, Burtner's music has also received honors and awards from the Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the American Music Center, the Luigi Russolo International Computter Music Competition, the Gaudeamus International Young Composers Competition, the Hultgren International Cello Biennial, Darmstadt, Prix d'Ete, SCI, and others. In 2010/2011 Burtner is a Fellow at the Center for 21st Century Studies in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin.

Commissioned for performers such as the Spectri Sonori Ensemble, Noise Ensemble, MiN Ensemble, Phyllis Bryn Julson and Mark Markham, the Peabody Trio, Ascolto, Ensemble Noise, Haleh Abghari, and many others. His music has been presented at major festivals and venues throughout North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Among published recordings for DACO (Germany), The WIRE (UK), MIT Press (US), Innova (US), Centaur (US), EcoSono (US), and Euridice (Norway), his music appears on three critically acclaimed solo recordings: "Signal Ruins", "Metasaxophone Colossus" and "Portals of Distortion".