Matthew Malsky’s (b. 1961) compositional style is characterized by its rhythmic vitality, dramatically crafted gestures, melodic angularity, and irony. His music has been described as economical and elegant in both its technical and intellectual rigor, and in the way cutting-edge electronics are fully integrated with live performance. Malsky’s compositions speak with intensity, seriousness, and an underlying inquisitiveness about the boundaries between a complex world and a searching interior voice.
His compositions have been performed and a claimed internationally at venues such as the Ultima Festival in Oslo, Norway, the Bytes of Art Festival at Ylem in San Francisco, the En red 0-2000 Festival in Barcelona, Spark Festival of Electronic Music & Arts, the Ussachevsky Electronic Music Festival, the iChamber performing series at Arizona State University, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (at the Issue Project Room), International Society for ElectroAcoustic Music-US conferences, the Australasian Computer Music Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, the International Computer Music Festival in Kobe, Japan, and the Bowling Green New Music and Art Festival. His virtuosic compositions for acoustic instruments with live computer processing have attracted the interest of outstanding soloists including John Bruce Yeh (Chicago Symphony), Esther Lamneck (NYU), Frank Cox (C-Squared), Seth Josel, Patti Monson (Sequitur), Claudia Birkholz at the EXPAN-Festival für Neue Musik, and Isabel Ettenauer at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg, Austria. His second string quartet, Lacan, was commissioned and premiered by the Penderecki String Quartet, and a recording is included on a portrait album of his music for string quartet with performances by QX (Centaur Records). His chamber music has been performed by ensembles such as the Radius Ensemble, Worcester Chamber Music Society, Trio Tremonti, ECCE, and thingNY.