
Matthew Burtner is an Alaskan-born composer and sound artist. An IDEA Award winner and first prize winner of the Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music composition, is an Alaskan-born composer and sound artist whose work explores embodiment, ecology, polytemporality, and noise. His music has been performed in concerts around the world and featured by organizations such as NASA, PBS NewsHour, the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the BBC, the U.S. State Department under President Obama, and National Geographic. He has published three intermedia climate change works including the IDEA Award–winning telematic opera, Auksalaq. In 2020 he received an Emmy Award for “Composing Music with Snow and Glaciers,” a feature on his Glacier Music by Alaska Public Media. His music has also received international honors and awards from the Musica Nova (Czech Republic), Bourges (France), Gaudeamus (Netherlands), Darmstadt (Germany), and The Russolo (Italy) international competitions. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award for THE CEILING FLOATS AWAY (Ravello, 2018), a large-scale collaborative work with U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Rita Dove. Burtner holds the position of Eleanor Shea Professor of Music at the University of Virginia where he codirects the Coastal Future Conservatory. He also is founder and director of the environmental music non-profit organization EcoSono.
Albums
Soundscapes of Restoration
Catalog Number: RR8090
Icefield
Catalog Number: RR8066
Six Ecoacoustic Quintets / Avian Telemetry
Catalog Number: RR8040
Glacier Music
Catalog Number: RR8001
The Ceiling Floats Away
Catalog Number: RR7979