BIO

“Truly beautiful” (The Washington Post), “startlingly immediate” (Wall Street Journal), “darkly brilliant” (Classical Review) and “gritty, colorful, often profane and clearly true-to-life” (Opera News), composer Matthew Peterson moves dynamically between bold, socially-relevant contemporary operas, vast orchestral works celebrating a great and powerful natural world, playful and virtuosic solos, and shimmering, innovative choral works.  

Peterson’s music contains multitudes: seriousness, humor, power, tenderness, wilfulness - the grand and sublime as well as the fragile and delicate. His music has been commissioned and performed around the world by leading ensembles including the Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, the Swedish Radio Choir, Eric Ericsons Chamber Choir, and Stockholm Saxophone Quartet.

CURRENT ACTIVITY

From 2024-2026 Peterson will serve as Composer-in-Residence with Dalasinfoniettan in Falun, Sweden. Since 2020 he has received commissions from the Swedish Radio Choir, Gränslandet Symfonisk Fest, Länsmusiken Kalmar, Dalasinfoniettan, Carolinae Röster, Högalidskyrkan, Relativ Dansproduktion, Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Lund Choral Festival, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, FST & SKAP, Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör, Sofia Vokalensemble, organist Daniel Larsson, and percussionist Magdalena Meitzner. As an orchestrator and co-composer he has collaborated with performing and recording artists Moonica Mac, Sara Ajnnak, Erik Lundin, Kleerup, Sirintip Phasuk, and Mariam the Believer.

Recent and upcoming premiere performances include the October 2023 premiere of You Are My Hiding Place with Carolinae Röster, November 2023 premiere of Gajanis Eko with Sara Ajnnak, the April 2024 premiere of the horn trio Winning Isn’t Everything It’s the Only Thing for Ben Goldscheider, Callum Smart and Richard Uttley, summer 2024 premiere of Creatures Wild and Lonely for tenor saxophonist Theo Hillborg, the September 2024 premiere of Vagabond with Dalasinfoniettan, the spring 2025 premiere of a new work celebrating the Swedish Radio Choir’s 100-year anniversary, the August 2025 premiere of a percussion concerto at Gränslandet Symfonisk Fest, the fall 2025 premiere of a new dance work choreographed by Christina Tingskog, and the spring 2026 world premiere of Peterson’s second symphony by Dalasinfoniettan and the Swedish Radio Choir.

Peterson’s recordings include the internationally-acclaimed original-cast album of the opera Voir Dire (RedHouse, 2020), In Paradisum with Sofia Vokalensemble, featuring Cantate Domino (Footprint, 2019), Light Fields with Uppsala Vokalensemble (Footprint, 2020), Smooth Fat Nasty, the portrait album of Peterson’s complete saxophone works with Stockholm Saxophone Quartet (European Gramophone, Dec 2021), and the spring 2025 recording of Högalidsmässan with Dalasinfoniettan and Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

Peterson’s numerous awards include the 2024 Musikförläggarnas Pris (Swedish Music Publishers’ Award) for An Inner Sky, Carin Malmlöf-Forssling Composer Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, the Sven-David Sandström Award for Choral Composition, “Classical of the Year” from Dalecarlia Music Awards, the ASCAP Nissim Prize for best orchestral work, grand prize in the Uppsala Composer Competition, and the Fort Worth Frontiers award for new opera. He has received grants and funding from Fulbright, STIM, ASCAP, Längmanska Kulturfond, Kulturrådet (the Swedish Arts Council), Konstnärsnämnden (the Swedish Arts Grants Committee), the Wallenberg Foundation, Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation, and the Swedish Society of Composers (FST). His choral, chamber and solo music has been featured on festivals including Nordic Choir Expedition, Svensk Musikvår, Lund Choral Festival, and Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Karuizawa International Choral Festival (Japan), Boston Ahts (USA) and Purpur (South Africa). Peterson’s works are published and distributed by Gehrmans, Edition Skellton, Hinshaw, Tempo Music Resource, and Svensk Musik/Swedish Music Information Center.

EDUCATION

Peterson holds degrees from the Gotland School of Music Composition (artist diploma), Indiana University School of Music (M.M.) and St. Olaf College (B.M.), where his teachers included Sven-David Sandström and Mary Ellen Childs. Currently head instructor of music composition at Lilla Akademien, Matthew has also served on the faculty of the Gotland School of Music Composition (Visby, Sweden) and as an Associate Instructor in music composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Matthew is an avid outdoorsman and lives in Dalarna, Sweden.

last updated February 2024