BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
MATTHEW GREENBAUM was born in New York City in 1950. He
studied composition with Stefan Wolpe and Mario Davidovsky
and holds a Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the
recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim
Foundation, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund and the New
York Foundation of the Arts. His works have been
presented/performed/ commissioned by the Darmstadt Summer
Festival, the Leningrad Spring Festival, the Jakart
Festival (Indonesia), the Fromm Foundation, the Meet the
Composer/Readers Digest Commissioning Fund, Nuova
Consonanza/American Academy in Rome, the New Millennium
Ensemble, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Cygnus, Parnassus,
The Fromm Chamber Players, Fred Sherry, Marc-André Hamelin,
David Holzman, the Momenta String Quartet, Ensemble Surplus
(Freiburg/ NDR Festival), The League/ISCM, Network for New
Music/Penn Council on the Arts, the New York New Music
Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary Music, Orchestra 2001,
Christopher Taylor and the Riverside Symphony, and the
Houston Symphony. Recordings appear on CRI, Centaur and
Antes.
Greenbaum was the artistic director of the Stefan Wolpe
Centennial Festival NY (2002-3) and is currently acting
chair of the Department of Composition in the Esther Boyer
College of Music at Temple University.
An all-Greenbaum CD is available on Centaur Records (2004).
It includes UNTIMELY OBSERVATIONS for viola and piano,
AFLOATING ISLAND (chamber opera), CASTELNAU for string
quartet and PROSPECT RETROSPECT for cello and piano.
Performers include Fred Sherry, cello; Blair McMillen and
David Holzman piano; Stephanie Griffin, viola, the Momenta
String Quartet and Network for New Music.
REVIEWS
Classical CD Reviews Nov. 2004, Jonathan Woolf: Nod Quitet
Ox
Interview, Leipziger Volkszeitung July 15, 2004:
“Intellectueller Neutöner”
Badische Zeitung 6/30/04: “Mit Paukenschlag: Yun, Czernowin
und andere:
Das Ensemble Surplus in Freiburg
Seen and Heard International Concert Review: R.W, Emerson
Festival, hosted by
John Hollander, New York Society for Ethical Culture, May
13th 2004
Leslie Kandell, American Record Guide Jan-Feb 2003: “Wolpe
gets his due”
Paul Griffiths, NY Times: Wolpe at 100, Still Full of
Anger”
Paul Griffiths, NY Times: “Two Restless Piano Works Come
Home” March 3,1998
Alex Ross, NY Times: “Parnassus Plays Wolpe” September 5,
1992
James R. Oestreich, NY Times: “When Old is New and Modern
is History” October 30, 1996
Bernard Holland, NY Times: “Silence and Salesmanship in a
Program of New Music,” October 8, 1994
Bernard Holland, NY Times: “Words Celebrate Composer” May
6, 1993
Anthony Tommassini, The Boston Globe: “The ever-changing
sounds of Randall Hodgkinson,” February 4 1992
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “School’s
Contemporary Players open season” November 4, 1997
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “James Freeman with
Orchestra 2001” June 1, 1996
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Oboist as muse and
interpreter” October 28, 1999
Lesley Valdes, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Berio Work at
Settlement School” April 25, 1992
American Record Guide March/April 1998: Explorations:
New American Piano Music—Pleskow, Cornicello, Greenbaum,
Boros, Ytrehus”
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Gearing up for his
opera’s premiere at Temple”
May 2, 1997
Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer: “An operatic
retelling of 3 Ovid tales” May 7, 1997
Jennifer Dunning, NY Times: “Trying to Get the Most from
Going the Wrong Way” November 10, 1994
Andrew Porter, The New Yorker, “Parnassus” March 15, 1987
Leighton Kerner, The Village Voice: “Riding the Twain”
October 8, 1994
Neue Westfalische: Maxine Neuman und Paul Posnak
begeisterten mit ihrem Vortrag
March 19, 1981
Westfalen-Blatt #60: “Europäische Erstaufführungen
amerikanischer Komponisten”
Westfalen-Blatt Nr. 66: :Zuhörer verspürten echte
musikalische Leidenschaft”
Musikalnaie Kadri [Leningrad] #11
Richard Buell, The Boston Globe: “Fromm Players introduce
compelling, creative pieces” March 29, 2000