Musical artist
Matthew Ricketts (born 1986) is a Canadian composer of
contemporary classical music . He is a 2019
Guggenheim Fellow
[1] as well as the recipient of the 2020
Charles Ives Fellowship from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters , the 2016 Jacob Druckman Prize from the
Aspen Music Festival , the 2015
Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award , a 2013
ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and eight prizes in the
SOCAN Foundation's Awards for Young Composers. He lives in
Brooklyn ,
New York .
Biography
Matthew Ricketts was born in Victoria, British Columbia. He attended
McGill University ’s
Schulich School of Music ,
[2] where he studied composition with
Chris Harman ,
Brian Cherney , and
John Rea . He earned a doctorate in music composition from
Columbia University , where he studied with
George Lewis and
Fred Lerdahl . He is currently a Core Lecturer at Columbia.
[3]
Ricketts's music has been performed by the
Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra ,
Esprit Orchestra , the
Minnesota Orchestra and the
Montreal Symphony Orchestra , as well as by ensembles and soloists including
JACK Quartet ,
Quatuor Bozzini , the
Chiara String Quartet ,
FLUX Quartet , soprano
Tony Arnold , and the
Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM). He was Composer-Collaborator-In-Residence at
East Carolina University from 2016 to 2018.
[4]
In May 2017, the opening of Ricketts’s Highest Light , a Montreal Symphony Orchestra commission, was performed by French astronaut
Thomas Pesquet aboard the
International Space Station ,
[5] in a live broadcast during the world premiere performance in Montreal.
[6]
Ricketts's chamber opera Chaakapesh: The Trickster's Quest, with a libretto in
Cree by
Indigenous Canadian
playwright
Tomson Highway , premiered in September 2018 as the opening of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's 85th season,
[7] and was followed by a tour of indigenous communities in
Northern Quebec .
[8] The tour was documented in the 2019 film
Chaakapesh .
[9]
Other works
Ricketts is also active as a writer, librettist, and poet. His operatic collaboration with composer
Thierry Tidrow , Less Truth More Telling , was produced in 2013 by the
Dutch National Opera and the
Royal Conservatory of The Hague .
[10]
Selected works
Orchestral
Adrift (2020) for clarinet and orchestra
Halo (2019) for two trombones and orchestra
Méloscuro (2018) for piano and orchestra
Blood Line (2017) for orchestra
Melodia (2017) for piano and orchestra
Flat Line (2016) version for orchestra
Chamber
Ember (2019) for string quartet
Melodia (2016-2017) for piano solo
Highest Light (2016) for organ solo
In Partial View (2015) for string quartet
Flat Line (2014) for chamber ensemble of 15 players
Enclosed Position (2014) for alto flute, clarinet, string trio and piano
After Nine (2014) revised version for chamber ensemble
Winter Line (2013) for chamber ensemble of 14 players
Burrowed Time (2012) for chamber ensemble of 15 musicians
Still Burning (2011) for bassoon, bass trio, percussion and piano
Trio (2011) for clarinet, viola and piano
Graffiti Songs (2010) for flute, violin, cello and piano
Double Concerto (2007) for flute, clarinet and chamber ensemble
Vocal
Chaakapesh: The Trickster's Quest (2018) opera in three scenes for orchestra, two singers and narrator
Unset (2017) for soprano and chamber ensemble
Fälscherlieder (2016) for six voices and four instruments
Song Cycle (2015) for soprano and chamber ensemble
Swallow Songs (2014) for high soprano and piano
Women Well Met (2013) for vocal sextet
No Masque for Good Measure (2012) opera in three acts for four voices and four instruments
Selected awards and grants
References
^
"Matthew Ricketts" . John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation . Retrieved 11 April 2019 .
^
"Graduate Matthew Ricketts is among this year's recipients of the 2013 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award" . McGill University News and Events . McGill University. Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
"Matthew Ricketts, Core Lecturer, Music Humanities" . The Department of Music . Columbia University in the City of New York. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2019 .
^
"North Carolina New Music Initiative" . ECU School of Music . Retrieved 8 March 2019 .
^
"International Space Station news - 2017" . Canadian Space Agency . Government of Canada. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2019 .
^
"Organ and Space: Gaze Up To The Heavens" . Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal .
^ MacLellan, Ainslie.
"Montreal symphony teams up with Inuit, Cree & Innu artists to launch new opera" . CBC News . CBC. Retrieved 8 March 2019 .
^ Handke, Sebastian.
"Tshinashkumitin!" . Lufthansa Magazin . Retrieved 8 March 2019 .
^ Chris Knight,
"Chaakapesh celebrates creation and performance of a Cree opera" .
National Post , January 30, 2020.
^
"Four Short Operas" . The Hague Online . Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
"Columbia Students, Alumni, and Faculty Awarded Civitella Ranieri Fellowships" . 17 January 2020.
^
"2020 Music Award Winners – American Academy of Arts and Letters" .
^ Travers, Andrew (2 February 2017).
"Aspen Music Festival announces 'enchanted' 2017 summer season" . The Aspen Times . Retrieved 8 March 2019 .
^
"Salvatore Martirano Award" . University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . Retrieved 8 March 2019 .
^
"The ASCAP Foundation Names Recipients of the 2013 Morton Gould Young Composers Awards" . The ASCAP Foundation . Retrieved 8 March 2019 .