Matthew Goodheart composer, pianist, sound installation artist

Composer, improviser, and sound artist Matthew Goodheart has developed a wide body of work that explores the relationships between performer, instrument, and listener. His diverse creations range from large-scale microtonal compositions to open improvisations to immersive sound installations – all unified by the analytic techniques and performative methodologies he has developed to bring forth the unique and subtle acoustic properties of individual musical instruments.

Following an early career as an improvising pianist performing and recording with such luminaries as Glenn Spearman, Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, Gianni Gebbia, Fred Frith,

and Pauline Oliveros, his broad swath of work has been featured throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Turkey in such diverse festivals as Neue Musik Köln, MaerzMusik, New York Electroacoustic Music Festival, Estate Fiorentine, The International Spectral Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Klappsthulfest, Jazz Ao Centro, The Illuminations New Music & Arts Festival, and the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival. His numerous awards and honors including the Berlin Prize in Music Composition, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, and a Fulbright. His work was also featured in Craig Vear’s recent book The Digital Score. His most recent CD Berlin Head Metal, a binaural fixed media work generated entirely of transduced metal percussion sounds, was released on the Infrequent Seams label in April of 2019, is director the New York Transduction Festival. A life-long teacher, he is Assistant Professor of Music Composition at Rensselaer Polytechnic University.