BIO

Matt Marks is a composer/performer of emotionally manipulative pop songs and acoustic works. A founding member of Alarm Will Sound, he also performs as a French hornist with such acclaimed new music ensembles as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Signal, and ACME. He has recorded for Warp Records, Nonesuch, Cantaloupe Music, as well as many other independent labels. As a composer and arranger, Matt’s work has been called “staggeringly creative” by The New York Times, “obsessively detailed” by New York Magazine, and “stunning” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, The Bang on a Can Marathon, the Tribeca New Music Festival, and live on WNYC radio. Matt’s first album, his post-Christian nihilist pop opera, The Little Death: Vol. 1, was released on New Amsterdam Records May 25th, 2010. Other recent projects include The Adventures of Albert Fish, described by Sequenza21.com as “brilliantly simultaneously creepy and funny”; A Portrait of Glenn Beck for the new music ensemble Newspeak; and an arrangement of The Beatles’ Revolution 9 for Alarm Will Sound. Recently Matt has been working with The Dirty Projectors on a live realization of their opera The Getty Address and on his first string quartet for ETHEL. Matt is also co-director of the BDSM-themed chamber ensemble, Ensemble de Sade, and is an organizer of the annual New Music Bake Sale.