Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell is a pianist, composer, and electronic musician interested in the intersections of various strains of acoustic, electric, composed, and improvised new music. He has released several forward-thinking, critically acclaimed, and influential albums as a leader on Pi Recordings and Screwgun Records. He leads the ensembles Phalanx Ambassadors, Fiction, and the Vista Quartet, and co-leads Snark Horse with Kate Gentile. These ensembles feature many of the current foremost musicians and improvisers, including Kim Cass, Kate Gentile, Ben Gerstein, Jon Irabagon, Ava Mendoza, Miles Okazaki, Brandon Seabrook, Ches Smith, Chris Speed, Chris Tordini, Anna Webber, and Dan Weiss. He is an anchor member of several significant and acclaimed creative music ensembles which integrate composed and improvised music, including Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, Dan Weiss’s Starebaby, Miles Okazaki’s Trickster, Ches Smith’s We All Break, Kate Gentile’s Find Letter X, Jon Irabagon’s Outright!, Anna Webber’s Simple Trio, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, Linda Oh’s Aventurine, Caroline Davis’s Alula, Jonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense, and the Dave King Trio.

Matt Mitchell has performed regularly with many of the foremost musicians and bandleaders in improvised music, including Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse, the Dave Douglas Quintet, Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls, John Zorn’s Bagatelles, John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet + 1, Mario Pavone’s Blue Dialect Trio, Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux, the Darius Jones Quartet, Michael Attias’s Spun Tree, Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth, Donny McCaslin, JD Allen, Lee Konitz, and Kenny Wheeler.

He has taught extensively with the Brooklyn-based School for Improvisational Music, as well as at the New School, NYU, and the Siena Jazz Workshop. He is a 2015 recipient of a Doris Duke Impact Award and a 2012 recipient of a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.