Bio

Here are a couple of bios that I use for programs. If you want them in pdf, here they are:

Matthew Dunne long bio

Matthew Dunne short bio

Long Bio:

Matthew Dunne, guitarist and composer, has performed and taught throughout the United States and Mexico in both the classical and jazz genres. The San Antonio Express News has called his playing “beautiful…elegant, superb, well crafted and sophisticated.” He is an award winning and versatile composer: Classical Guitar Magazine described his Twenty Miniatures: “Without exception all are extremely well-written by a highly skilled composer who understands well the intricacies, nuances and characteristics of the guitar…These pieces are some of the best and most worthy contemporary solo guitar works that I’ve come across in quite a while.”

Matthew has been a frequent collaborator with The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, having composed music for three of their Telarc CDs, including the Grammy winning Guitar Heroes. In 2013 the LAGQ commissioned and premiered his work Cuba Libre at NYC’s prestigious 92nd St Y “Art of the Guitar” series, including a national broadcast. Matthew was the winner of the Tobin Grand Prize for Artistic Excellence from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, the only musician to win this award, as well as two grant awards in Music Composition in 2008 and 2014. The first of these resulted in the Twenty Miniatures, the second in the composition and recording of an orchestral film score, for the independent film Upon The Awful Tree. Other recordings of his guitar music include Appalachian Summer by GFA winner Jerome Ducharme on his Naxos CD Guitar Recital, Elena, Kerko Elena on the CD The Balkan Project by the acclaimed Cavatina Duo, and several of the Jazz Etudes on Bill Kanengiser’s GSP CD Classical Cool.

Some of his guitar works are published by GSP international and many are performed extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. Matthew’s compositional training and output was originally primarily in the jazz idiom, and he brings a jazz vocabulary to many of his guitar compositions.

He has recorded four of his own compact discs; Forget the Alamo, a collection of his compositions for jazz combo, Music in the Mission, a recording of mostly 20th century Latin American music for classical guitar recorded in the historic Mission San Jose in San Antonio, the Twenty Miniatures, and The Accidental Trio, an acclaimed recording featuring vocalist Joan Carroll and accordionist Mark Rubinstein.

Matthew Dunne is an associate professor in the music department of the University of Texas at San Antonio, directing the classical guitar program as well as teaching jazz improvisation and entrepreneurship. He received the doctoral degree in jazz and classical guitar from the University of Texas Austin, the first to receive this degree from UT Austin. He received the MM degree in guitar performance from Florida State University, and studied privately for several years with the renowned guitar pedagogue Aaron Shearer. A dedicated teacher, Matthew is the director of the Keene Valley Guitarist-Composer Workshop, an intensive masterclass for aspiring guitarist/composers in the beautiful Adirondack High Peaks region. His students have an impressive record of professional success that includes competition prizes, scholarships/fellowships to elite graduate programs, and successful professional teaching careers.

In addition to teaching, performing, and composing, Matthew directed The Southwest Guitar Festival in San Antonio every two years from 1995-2009, along with the Guitar Foundation of America Convention in 2000. This festival has included collaborative projects with many arts organizations in San Antonio and has garnered considerable critical acclaim and international recognition. It included Leo Brouwer’s sole U.S. conducting appearance, the world premier of Sergio Assads Interchange for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra and James Scott Balentine’s Triqueta for Guitar, Horn, and Chamber Orchestra, the U.S. premier of Los Niños Del CIDEC from Paracho, Michoacan, and the development of an international guitar competition for students.

He continues to arrange and compose in jazz styles, particularly within the setting of an innovative chamber music series in San Antonio that involves collaborative efforts between professional symphony and jazz musicians. This series has had a 20 year successful history and has developed a strong local following.

In addition to the guitar works listed above, Matthew composed a programmatic piece for the GFA winning guitarist Mary Akerman. This piece, titled Through the Halocline, was inspired by scuba diving in caves (cenotes) in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The ‘halocline’ is a layering effect generated by stratification of fresh and salt water within the Mexican cave system. It produces strange optical effects, including the illusion that divers descending immediately ahead disappear or dissolve, and unpredictable reflections of light emanating from both diver’s lights and from the occasional vent to the jungle above the cave system. He also recently composed a song based on an award-winning poem by a 16 year old girl titled “A Wish.” That song was commissioned by the guitarist David Asbury and baritone Bruce Cain for their CD River of Words and has been performed frequently, including a Kennedy Center Performance.

 

Short Bio:

Matthew Dunne, guitarist and composer, has performed and taught throughout the United States and Mexico in both classical and jazz genres. He is the only artist to have won three awards from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, including the Tobin Grand Prize for Artistic Excellence. His Twenty Miniatures were described in Classical Guitar: “without exception all are extremely well written by a highly skilled composer…some of the best contemporary solo guitar pieces I’ve come across…” He has been a frequent collaborator with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, having composed music for three consecutive LAGQ CDs on Telarc, including the GRAMMY winning Guitar Heroes. Other recordings of his compositions include Appalachian Summer (GFA winner Jerome Ducharme) Elena, Kerko Elena (Cavatina Duo) and Jazz Etudes (William Kanengiser). Many of his works are published by GSP International and are frequently performed world-wide.

He has recorded four compact discs of his own; Forget the Alamo, a jazz quintet CD of original compositions; Music in the Mission, classical guitar recorded in the beautiful historic Mission San Jose, The Accidental Trio, with vocalist Joan Carroll and accordionist Mark Rubinstein; and the Twenty Miniatures CD. He also composed and recorded an orchestral soundtrack for the independent film Upon the Awful Tree. He is an associate professor of music at the University of Texas at San Antonio and directs the Keene Valley Guitarist-Composer Workshop near Lake Placid, New York, in the summers.