Matthew Ricketts

Matthew Ricketts is a Canadian composer currently based in NYC. Matthew’s music has been called “lyrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced” (The American Academy of Arts and Letters) and is noted for his “effervescent and at times prickly sounds,” “hypnotically churning exploration of melody” (ICareIfYouListen) as well as its “tart harmonies and perky sputterings” (The New York Times). He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, in addition to receiving fellowships and residencies from Bogliasco Foundation (2022), Civitella Ranieri (2021), MacDowell (2019; 2022), the Tanglewood Music Center (2018) and the Aspen Music Festival (2016-2017). He has been awarded major grants from institutions on both sides of the border, including the Library of Congress (Koussevitzky Music Foundation) and The Canada Council for The Arts.

Particularly drawn to collaborative endeavors, Matthew has worked on a wide range of interdisciplinary projects, including scoring the feature film Glob Lessons (2021 Tribeca Film Festival official selection), dance projects with choreographers Brendan Drake and Jennifer Nichols, and opera/musical theater projects with librettists Mark Campbell, Royce Vavrek and Tomson Highway.