About Matthew Aucoin
Matthew Aucoin is an American composer, conductor, writer, pianist, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. In recent seasons, his music has been performed by artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to the Philadelphia Orchestra, and commissioned by institutions including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and the Ojai Music Festival. Aucoin is a co-founder of the American Modern Opera Company. His book about opera, The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera, was published in 2021 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
The Latest
World premiere of "Music for New Bodies"
In the spring of 2024, Aucoin conducts the world premiere of Music for New Bodies, a 70-minute staged song cycle based on visionary recent poems by Jorie Graham.
Aucoin’s collaborator on this piece is the director Peter Sellars, who will direct a full production of the work in a future season. Music for New Bodies was co-commissioned by the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), Da Camera of Houston, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Los Angeles Opera. The piece will have its concert premiere in Houston on April 20 before traveling to Aspen in July.
Also this spring, Boston Lyric Opera presented a new production of Aucoin’s opera Eurydice, conducted by the composer and starring Sydney Mancasola, Elliot Madore, and David Portillo (March 1 through 10). Aucoin also travels to The Gilmore Keyboard Festival, where the superlative pianist Kirill Gerstein plays the US premiere of Aucoin’s piece The tracks have vanished (May 10).
