Press Kit
Canadian composer, performer, and educator Matthias McIntire has followed a unique path through music and his compositions reflect his eclectic background in performance (violin, viola, voice, and electronics), Western classical and new music, as well as jazz, fiddle, free improvisation, field recording, foley art, and electronic music. His music has found inspiration from personal expression, the human psyche and emotions, collaboration with others, nature, birds, making field recordings, fear of climate change, colourful things, stars, the spaces between musical genres, feelings of mystery in the world, and travel.
Matthias is establishing a reputation for his distinctive sound world, depth of musical expression, and the breadth of his innovative practice. His 40-minute multimedia song cycle sing nature alive from my insides, created with soprano/pianist/poet Rachel Fenlon and filmmaker Jamie McMillan, explores a deep love of nature alongside a growing fear of climate change. Blending a dream-to-nightmare narrative with sounds of breath, ocean waves, and live-electronic vocal processing, the work seeks to dramatically reimagine the possibilities for art song in the 21st century. Composed for Fenlon as a self-accompanied soprano/pianist, the cycle has toured widely, with performances at SXSW Classical, Scotia Festival of Music, Berlied Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, Barokki Kuopio Festival, and SweetWater Festival.
His two-part work, Nocturne and ∆ Nocturne, builds on the rich tradition of the piano nocturne, exploring dreamlike states and existential reflection, while engaging with AI technologies and the artistic, ethical, and creative implications of using AI in art-making. Composed for pianist Tong Wang and the composer on electronics, the work also features a bespoke web-based AI instrument co-created for the project with programmer Han Yang Zhao. The app allows for control over both the AI engine’s behavior and a range of audio effects, treating the AI’s speech as raw sound material to be transformed into new music in real time.
2025/2026 season highlights include Matthias’ composer debut with the Edmonton Symphony with his work The Forest Reclaims the Land; an evening-length portrait concert of his music co-presented by Scotia Fest and Dalhousie University; multiple performances of his song cycle sing nature alive from my insides, including his Berlin debut and at Classical: NEXT 2026 in Budapest, Hungary; and the world premiere of lost child, his concerto for violin, live-electronics, and orchestra performed by himself and the Dalhousie Symphony Orchestra.
For the 2026/27 season, Matthias is named a NextGen Composer by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which has commissioned a new orchestral work to premiere on April 10, 2027. He has also been commissioned by the Fierbois Duo, Caitlin Broms-Jacobs and Madeline Hildebrand, to compose a chamber work for oboe and piano that incorporates his own field recordings from Kejimkujik National Park (Nova Scotia) as part of their Peace of Wild Things Project.
A recipient of numerous awards, grants, and other honours, Matthias was named a 2026/2027 NextGen Composer by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; he received the 2021 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music (University of Toronto); he has been awarded 10+ grants from the Toronto, Ontario, and Canada Councils for the Arts, and others from the University of Toronto, U of T Scarborough, and Ontario Graduate Scholarships; he was selected as 2020-21 Composer Fellow for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra; he was also the 2016 Winner of the Lyra Society (Philadelphia) Costello Composition Competition at the Curtis Institute. He is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and currently serves as the Atlantic Region Representative for the Canadian League of Composers.
Matthias’ compositions have been presented internationally by artists, ensembles, and venues including the Verona Quartet, self-accompanied soprano/pianist Rachel Fenlon, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, cellist Arlen Hlusko, pianist Tong Wang, Duo Holz, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Canadian Music Centre (Toronto), Fall for Dance North, TEDx U of T, The University of Toronto, Array Space (Toronto), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (Nova Scotia), New Art/New Media (Ottawa), Ottawa Chamberfest, the Center for New Music (San Francisco), One Found Sound (San Francisco), the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia), the University of Seattle (Washington), New Music for Strings (Iceland), BarokkiKuopio Festival (Finland), among others.
As a committed educator, Matthias is currently on faculty at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2024 where he teaches Composition, Intro to Composition, and directs the New Music Ensemble. He was Composer-in-Residence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (Lamp) in Nova Scotia from 2022-2024, where he has also co-directed Lamp’s Summer Composition Academy since 2023, alongside composers Dinuk Wijeratne and Roydon Tse.
Matthias’ performance highlights include appearing as guest second violin with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, performing as violin soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia in Nicole Lizée’s violin concerto Cathedral Mountain, chamber music appearances with leading musicians including Annalee Patipatanakoon, Christina Quilico, the Miro Quartet, and members of orchestras from across Canada. He has appeared as section violinist and violist with the National Ballet Orchestra of Canada, Tapestry Opera, New Music Concerts Toronto, and Symphony Nova Scotia. Additionally, from 2013-2017, he was a core member of the SF Bay Area’s Real Vocal String Quartet as violist, vocalist, improviser, and composer. He has also shared the stage with jazz greats Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, and Uri Caine.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Matthias holds a DMA in Composition from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Christos Hatzis and Eliot Britton. He also holds Masters and Bachelors degrees in Violin Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Glenn Gould School (Toronto), respectively.