Arts Division
Assistant Professor
Faculty
Digital Arts and New Media
Digital Arts Research Center
333
Fri. 1-3, or by appointment
Music Center
Matt Schumaker’s music engages with research into computer-assisted composition and interactive computer music with performers. He received a doctorate in Music Composition from UC Berkeley (UCB), where he studied with composers Edmund Campion, Cindy Cox, Franck Bedrossian, Ken Ueno and David Wessel. Early on in his studies, Schumaker spent a formative year in Amsterdam, studying with Louis Andriessen. More recently, Schumaker moved to France through UCB’s Prix de Paris program, working closely with composer Martin Matalon while composing his dissertation piece. Soprano Ann Moss premiered this work, As I ride the late night freeways, with the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Milnes.
In recent years, Schumaker’s music has been performed by the Radius Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Winsor Music, Eco Ensemble, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Schumaker’s music has also been presented at festivals and curated events, including by clarinetist Rane Moore at the Virtual SICPP 2020, by pianist Chia-Lin Yang at the April in Santa Cruz Festival, by members of Dog Trio at the klub katarakt Festival for Experimental Music in Hamburg, Germany, by clarinetist Joshua Rubin at the soundSCAPE festival in Blonay, Switzerland, and by pianist Eric Huebner as part of the Gassmann Electronic Music Series at UC Irvine. Schumaker’s multimedia work for music and computer graphics has been shown at Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville and at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum in Saint Austine.
From 2015-17, Schumaker was a Lecturer at UCB, teaching courses in computer music and music perception and cognition. During 2018-20, he was an Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar at MIT. In fall 2021, he joined the Music Department at UC Santa Cruz as Assistant Professor.
Electronic and computer music, computer-assisted composition, interactive musical systems, mixed works for acoustic instruments and computer technologies, sonification, signal decomposition DSP and machine learning, and visual music.
• Gugak International Fellow, National Gugak Center, South Korea, 2023
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar Program recipient, M.I.T. (2018, renewed 2019). Summer 2018 - Summer 2020
• George Ladd Prix de Paris from UC Berkeley. Fall 2013 - Fall 2014
• Temporary structures (2022) for piano and computer graphics
Disklavier and projections version presented at Crisp-Ellert Art Museum as part of the FMFF ’23 Festival in Saint Augustine, Fl. on 5/20/23
Installation version as part of a group show at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, TN from 4/2/22-5/28/22
Selected Works and Performances:
• Spiral, supercluster, filament, wall (after Michael Anderson) (2023) for piano and electronics Performances: Gassmann Electronic Music Series at UC Irvine, Schumaker half portrait concert, performance by Eric Huebner, Irvine, CA 4/19/23; April in Santa Cruz Festival, Eric Huebner in Santa Cruz, CA 4/17/23.
• Temporary structures (2022) for piano and computer graphics.Performances: Gassmann Electronic Music Series at UC Irvine, Schumaker half portrait concert, performance by Eric Huebner, Irvine, CA 4/19/23; Hanne Franzen, piano and Dong Zhou, electronics in Hamburg, Germany at the klub katarakt Festival 1/21/23. Performance at the April in Santa Cruz Festival, Chia-Lin Yang in Santa Cruz, CA 4/22/22.
• Mehretu trace (2020) for clarinet, oboe and live electronics. Radius Ensemble commission; Performances: Cambridge, MA, March 7, 2020 & Fitchburg, MA, 3/8/20. Encore presentation by Radius in virtual concert/discussion on 10/15/20.
• M-retrace (8/20) A re-articulation of the piece Mehretu trace where music that was originally created from tracings of painted gestures now shapes the contours of computer-generated forms in an installation piece.
• Streaml_i__n___e____s (after Robert Lawrence) (2019) for Bb clarinet and live electronics. Joshua Rubin, clarinet; performance: soundscape Festival in Blonay, Switzerland, 7/23/23. Joshua Rubin, clarinet; performance: Gassmann Electronic Music Series at UC Irvine, Schumaker half portrait concert. Rane Moore, clarinet; performance: Winsor Music Virtual Concert, September 20, 2020; online performance video: https://youtu.be/tk9ikEF8jG0?t=714 . Rane Moore, clarinet; performance: Virtual SICPP 2020, July 30, 2020; online performance video: https://sicpp.deck10.media/ .Dinosaur Annex commission; performance: Cambridge, MA, April 14, 2019.
• Nocte lux (2013, rev. 2018) for two cellos, double bass live electronics and soundtrack. Commissioned by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble; Performances: Cal Performances/Eco Ensemble: Berkeley, CA, March 2, 2019; Left Coast Chamber Ensemble: San Francisco, Marin County, 2013.
• As I ride the late night freeways (2013-15) for singer and orchestra. Text by Cathy Park Hong. Performance: Ann Moss, soprano, with UC Berkeley Symphony, Spring, 2015.
• CNMAT-OM Tessellate Library, an algorithmic composition toolset written in Lisp for use in the OpenMusic environment. Released by CNMAT in Summer, 2017.
• “Computer-aided composition in the creation of As I ride the late night freeways,” chapter in The OM Composer’s Book 3 (Ircam, Editions Delatour, 2016)
• As I ride the late night freeways (for soprano and orchestra) PhD dissertation, accepted July 2015.
