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Octava Concert!!!
Sunday April 21st 6pm
Maple Park Church
17620 60th Avenue West, Lynnwood, WA, 98037


The Octava Chamber Orchestra
bringing great music to the PNW




           

Matthew Gonzales
Composer

           
                         


              

Matthew Gonzales (1986) was born and raised in Oshkosh, WI. He currently lives there with his wife, Sara, and their three cats. His musical career is based primarily on performing and teaching music, but he also actively composes as a hobby and to pursue musical interests and sharpen his musical understanding.

He began studying viola at the age of 9 during an after-school strings program. Before college, he studied viola under Laura Salzwedel and Carmen Kitz, among other teachers, as well as bass lessons with area teachers and chamber music lessons with Geri Grine.

In high school, Matthew began composing. Some of his first pieces included sets of duets for violin and viola, small chamber pieces, and a concerto for viola and string orchestra (which he premiered his senior year of high school). In 2005, he entered college at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, where he is finishing a degree in Music Education (Instrumental and General music, PK-12). While in the University, he has sat as principal viola under the baton of Dr. Lucia Matos, Dr. Rob McWilliams, and acclaimed cellist and conductor Andre Gaskins. He has also coached viola and assisted clinicians for university events. He studied composition with Dr. James Chaudoir, as well as violin and viola with Klara Fenyo Bahcall.

Matthew's music draws from multiple eras and musical styles. He favors static harmonies and the concepts of moving blocks of sound. While his music is not technically "tonal", he strives to make consonance out of otherwise dissonant intervals and harmonic structures through repetition, voicing, and sometimes complex counterpoint. He finds himself most greatly influenced by Paul Hindemith, Gustav Mahler, and Igor Stravinsky. He writes mostly contemporary music for stringed instruments, but has received premiers of pieces written for solo piano and other instruments. His major works include a nocturne for string orchestra, a set of 9 pieces for mixed-instrument nonet, and a miniature suite for viola and piano.


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