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 Barbican Center, The Bang on a Can Marathon, and live on WNYC radio. Matt’s first album, his post-Christian nihilist pop opera, The Little Death: Vol. 1, released on New Amsterdam Records, was described as “cheerily seductive” by the NY Times and “unabashedly boppy, baroquely multireferential, then suddenly sentimental” by Time Out NY. TLDV1 was also one of Time Out NY’s Top Ten Classical albums of 2010 and it contained one of Huffington Post’s Top Ten Alternative Art Songs of the Decade.
Other recent projects include his Mixtape for ETHEL, A Song for Wade for Alarm Will Sound, a remix for an upcoming Meredith Monk album, a live realization of The Dirty Projectors’ album/opera The Getty Address and an upcoming music theater work based on the life of Mata Hari. 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.
