Full Bio (Bilingual/short bio in English/Chinese to follow)
An advocate of contemporary classical music, Hong-Kong-Chinese-Canadian composer and pianist Matt Poon promotes music of our time by creating, performing, improvising, and researching. His dedication has granted him awards and scholarships including first prize and prize for best performance of commissioned work in the Eckhardt-Gramatte Competition for Performance of Canadian and Contemporary Music (Canada Arts Council Prize), the American String Quartet Composition Competition, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Open Call for Works Competition, and during his studies at the University of Toronto, Glenn Gould Composition Award, William Erving Fairclough Graduating Scholarship, and the Kathleen Walls Memorial Scholarship Fund. Matt is listed on cbcmusic.ca as one of the "30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 in 2016". (www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/11704/30-hot-canadian-classical-under-30-2016) As the 2016 E-Gré laureate, Matt performed a solo concert tour across Canada generously supported by the Canada Arts Council and the E-Gré Competition Foundation. Matt is the recipient of several Canada Council for the Arts grants and Ontario Arts Council grants, including the Chalmers Professional Development Project grant.
Valuing both tradition and innovation, Matt’s music is characterized by its expressivity, new sonic ideas focused on explorations of texture and timbre, as well as experimentations with large structure and proportion. He has been featured as part of the “Young Artist Overture” series by Soundstreams Canada, and as a composer-performer at the Stone (NYC). His string quartet Episodic Opposition written for the American String Quartet was premiered in New York, and was subsequently performed at their Chamber Music Society of Detroit Education Program Residency. His music has been premiered by the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, members of Tactus, performers at the Orford Arts Centre, and Kanata Winds, in venues such as the CBC Glenn Gould Studio, The Integral House, the Firehouse Space, the Stone, the MacMillan Theatre, the Borden Auditorium, and a number of recital halls in Canada, US, and Hong Kong. His music has been workshopped by the Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal (ECM+), TorQ, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Tactus.
As an active solo and chamber-ensemble pianist, Matt specializes in music from the early twentieth century to the presence. His exploration in the contemporary repertoire has gained him skills performing with fixed/live electronics, theatrical and improvisatory elements, and various extended techniques. As a laureate of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition, Matt performed a 10-city concert tour across Canada and a debut concert in Italy promoting contemporary piano music, including his own composition and repertoire with extended techniques written by living Canadian and International composers. Matt performed in multimedia productions, as a midi-keyboard-player/theatre-performer for Hong Kong Exile (Vancouver-based interdisciplinary arts company) touring across Canada (including the Banff Centre for the Arts), Europe (including Gaudeamus Muziekweek in the Netherlands and Sonica Festival in Glasgow), and in Hong Kong (Tai Kwun), and as a pianist-improviser for Volcano Theatre (Toronto-based performance company) across Canada. As a former member of Tactus and the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Toronto (gamUT), Matt has premiered works by Hong Kong composers at the Manhattan-Hong Kong festival, performed works by established American composers such as Paul Moravec, Bill Ryan, Paula Matthusen, Joseph Schwantner, and the Bang-On-A-Can composers, and worked under the direction of conductor Jeff Milarsky, Gary Kulesha, Wallace Halladay, and Norbert Palej.
Matt also has a passion for theoretical studies and completed a research project on György Ligeti’s construction and organization of rhythm, metre, tempo, and pitch in Etudes pour Piano (Excerpts), titled The Principle of Breakdown in “Chaos Theory” and “Fractal Geometry”. Matt has given a lecture-performance on the major influences and specific elements of selected Ligeti Etudes at the Manhattan School of Music.
Matt holds a Master of Music in Composition and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Matt completed his Bachelor of Music in Composition at the University of Toronto and holds a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music UK (LRSM) and an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto (ARCT). His major composition mentors have included Mark Stambaugh, Roger Bergs, Gary Kulesha, Brian Current, and Chan Ka Nin. His major piano mentors have included Anthony De Mare, Carol Ann Aicher, Christopher Oldfather, Midori Koga, Marjean Olson, and Jennifer K. Lee. Born in Toronto, Matt moved to Hong Kong shortly after birth and returned to Canada at the age of 14. He made his first public appearance at the age of 16 with the Esprit Orchestra where he composed sections of ‘tween by Ron Ford.
Matt has returned to Canada after his graduate studies and is currently launching his new private teaching studio in Markham. He is currently accepting new students, especially adult learners and amateurs, and remedial intermediate to advanced teenage students. Matt’s teaching philosophy is to encourage his students to study a balanced variety of repertoire and to be well-rounded and knowledgeable musicians through playing, performing, composing, improvising, music appreciation, and theory and aural skills training. For inquiries please contact Matt by the RCM Teachers' Directory (Matt Poon | The Royal Conservatory of Music (rcmusic.com)) or directly via email ([email protected]).
An advocate of contemporary classical music, Hong-Kong-Chinese-Canadian composer and pianist Matt Poon promotes music of our time by creating, performing, improvising, and researching. His dedication has granted him awards and scholarships including first prize and prize for best performance of commissioned work in the Eckhardt-Gramatte Competition for Performance of Canadian and Contemporary Music (Canada Arts Council Prize), the American String Quartet Composition Competition, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Open Call for Works Competition, and during his studies at the University of Toronto, Glenn Gould Composition Award, William Erving Fairclough Graduating Scholarship, and the Kathleen Walls Memorial Scholarship Fund. Matt is listed on cbcmusic.ca as one of the "30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 in 2016". (www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/11704/30-hot-canadian-classical-under-30-2016) As the 2016 E-Gré laureate, Matt performed a solo concert tour across Canada generously supported by the Canada Arts Council and the E-Gré Competition Foundation. Matt is the recipient of several Canada Council for the Arts grants and Ontario Arts Council grants, including the Chalmers Professional Development Project grant.
Valuing both tradition and innovation, Matt’s music is characterized by its expressivity, new sonic ideas focused on explorations of texture and timbre, as well as experimentations with large structure and proportion. He has been featured as part of the “Young Artist Overture” series by Soundstreams Canada, and as a composer-performer at the Stone (NYC). His string quartet Episodic Opposition written for the American String Quartet was premiered in New York, and was subsequently performed at their Chamber Music Society of Detroit Education Program Residency. His music has been premiered by the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, members of Tactus, performers at the Orford Arts Centre, and Kanata Winds, in venues such as the CBC Glenn Gould Studio, The Integral House, the Firehouse Space, the Stone, the MacMillan Theatre, the Borden Auditorium, and a number of recital halls in Canada, US, and Hong Kong. His music has been workshopped by the Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal (ECM+), TorQ, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Tactus.
As an active solo and chamber-ensemble pianist, Matt specializes in music from the early twentieth century to the presence. His exploration in the contemporary repertoire has gained him skills performing with fixed/live electronics, theatrical and improvisatory elements, and various extended techniques. As a laureate of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition, Matt performed a 10-city concert tour across Canada and a debut concert in Italy promoting contemporary piano music, including his own composition and repertoire with extended techniques written by living Canadian and International composers. Matt performed in multimedia productions, as a midi-keyboard-player/theatre-performer for Hong Kong Exile (Vancouver-based interdisciplinary arts company) touring across Canada (including the Banff Centre for the Arts), Europe (including Gaudeamus Muziekweek in the Netherlands and Sonica Festival in Glasgow), and in Hong Kong (Tai Kwun), and as a pianist-improviser for Volcano Theatre (Toronto-based performance company) across Canada. As a former member of Tactus and the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Toronto (gamUT), Matt has premiered works by Hong Kong composers at the Manhattan-Hong Kong festival, performed works by established American composers such as Paul Moravec, Bill Ryan, Paula Matthusen, Joseph Schwantner, and the Bang-On-A-Can composers, and worked under the direction of conductor Jeff Milarsky, Gary Kulesha, Wallace Halladay, and Norbert Palej.
Matt also has a passion for theoretical studies and completed a research project on György Ligeti’s construction and organization of rhythm, metre, tempo, and pitch in Etudes pour Piano (Excerpts), titled The Principle of Breakdown in “Chaos Theory” and “Fractal Geometry”. Matt has given a lecture-performance on the major influences and specific elements of selected Ligeti Etudes at the Manhattan School of Music.
Matt holds a Master of Music in Composition and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Matt completed his Bachelor of Music in Composition at the University of Toronto and holds a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music UK (LRSM) and an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto (ARCT). His major composition mentors have included Mark Stambaugh, Roger Bergs, Gary Kulesha, Brian Current, and Chan Ka Nin. His major piano mentors have included Anthony De Mare, Carol Ann Aicher, Christopher Oldfather, Midori Koga, Marjean Olson, and Jennifer K. Lee. Born in Toronto, Matt moved to Hong Kong shortly after birth and returned to Canada at the age of 14. He made his first public appearance at the age of 16 with the Esprit Orchestra where he composed sections of ‘tween by Ron Ford.
Matt has returned to Canada after his graduate studies and is currently launching his new private teaching studio in Markham. He is currently accepting new students, especially adult learners and amateurs, and remedial intermediate to advanced teenage students. Matt’s teaching philosophy is to encourage his students to study a balanced variety of repertoire and to be well-rounded and knowledgeable musicians through playing, performing, composing, improvising, music appreciation, and theory and aural skills training. For inquiries please contact Matt by the RCM Teachers' Directory (Matt Poon | The Royal Conservatory of Music (rcmusic.com)) or directly via email ([email protected]).
Bilingual/Short Bio (Eng/中)
Pianist and composer Matt Poon [潘昊] advocates and promotes music of our time by performing, creating, researching, and improvising. His dedication has granted him awards including first prize and prize for best performance of commissioned work in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition (Canada Council for the Arts Prize), first prize in the American String Quartet Composition Competition, and first prize in the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Open Call for Works. Matt is a recipient of Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council grants. He was listed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC/Radio-Canada) as one of the “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 in 2016”.
As a laureate of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition, Matt performed a 10-city concert tour across Canada and a debut concert in Italy promoting contemporary piano music, including his own composition and repertoire with extended techniques written by living Canadian and International composers. Matt performed in multimedia productions, as a midi-keyboard-player/theatre-performer for Hong Kong Exile (Vancouver-based interdisciplinary arts company) touring across Canada (including the Banff Centre for the Arts), Europe (including Gaudeamus Muziekweek in the Netherlands and Sonica Festival in Glasgow), and in Hong Kong (Tai Kwun [大館]), and as a pianist-improviser for Volcano Theatre (Toronto-based performance company) across Canada. As a former member of the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Music Ensemble (Tactus) and the University of Toronto Contemporary Music Ensemble (gamUT), Matt premiered chamber works by Hong Kong and American composers at the first Manhattan-Hong Kong festival [首屆曼克頓-香港音樂節], and performed chamber works by established Canadian and International composers. Matt was featured in part of the “Young Artist Overture” series by Soundstreams Canada, and as a composer-performer at the Stone in New York City and the Integral House in Toronto.
Matt holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance and a Master of Music in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto. He also holds a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music UK (LRSM) and an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto (ARCT). mattpoon.com
鋼琴家兼作曲家潘昊［Matt Poon］用表演、創作、研究和即興演奏去倡導及推進我們當代的音樂。全身心的投入爲他帶來了諸多獎項，包括Eckhardt-Gramatté全加拿大國家競賽一等獎和最佳委託作品表演獎（加拿大藝術局獎項），美國弦樂四重奏作曲競賽一等獎，多倫多青年交響樂團作品公開徵集一等獎。潘先生是加拿大藝術局和安大略省藝術局資助受領人。他被加拿大廣播公司（CBC/Radio-Canada）選入「2016年30位30歲以下當紅加拿大古典音樂家」。
作爲Eckhardt-Gramatté全加國競賽獲勝者，潘先生曾在加拿大舉辦十城巡演，並在意大利首次舉辦音樂會，為宣傳當代鋼琴音樂：包括他自己的作品，以及由當代在世的加拿大和國際作曲家創作的延伸技巧［extended techniques］曲目。潘先生曾在多媒體作品中演出，為Hong Kong Exile（溫哥華的跨領域藝術劇團）擔任MIDI鍵盤琴手及劇團表演者在加拿大（包括班夫藝術中心［Banff Centre for the Arts］）、歐洲（包括荷蘭的Gaudeamus Muziekweek和格拉斯哥的Sonica Festival）、和香港（大館）巡迴演出，並為Volcano Theatre（多倫多的表演劇團）擔任鋼琴即興演奏者在加拿大巡迴演出。作爲曼哈頓音樂學院當代樂團（Tactus）和多倫多大學當代樂團（gamUT）的前成員，潘先生在首屆曼哈頓-香港音樂節上首演了香港和美國作曲家的室樂作品，此外還演奏加拿大及各國著名作曲家的室樂作品。潘先生參與了加拿大 Soundstreams 的「年輕藝術家序曲」系列，並在紐約市的 Stone 和多倫多的 Integral House 擔任作曲兼演奏者。
潘先生在曼哈頓音樂學院獲鋼琴演奏碩士和作曲碩士學位，並在多倫多大學獲音樂學士學位。他並擁有英國皇家音樂學院的專業文憑（LRSM）和多倫多皇家音樂學院的附屬文憑 （ARCT）。 mattpoon.com
Pianist and composer Matt Poon [潘昊] advocates and promotes music of our time by performing, creating, researching, and improvising. His dedication has granted him awards including first prize and prize for best performance of commissioned work in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition (Canada Council for the Arts Prize), first prize in the American String Quartet Composition Competition, and first prize in the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Open Call for Works. Matt is a recipient of Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council grants. He was listed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC/Radio-Canada) as one of the “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 in 2016”.
As a laureate of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition, Matt performed a 10-city concert tour across Canada and a debut concert in Italy promoting contemporary piano music, including his own composition and repertoire with extended techniques written by living Canadian and International composers. Matt performed in multimedia productions, as a midi-keyboard-player/theatre-performer for Hong Kong Exile (Vancouver-based interdisciplinary arts company) touring across Canada (including the Banff Centre for the Arts), Europe (including Gaudeamus Muziekweek in the Netherlands and Sonica Festival in Glasgow), and in Hong Kong (Tai Kwun [大館]), and as a pianist-improviser for Volcano Theatre (Toronto-based performance company) across Canada. As a former member of the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Music Ensemble (Tactus) and the University of Toronto Contemporary Music Ensemble (gamUT), Matt premiered chamber works by Hong Kong and American composers at the first Manhattan-Hong Kong festival [首屆曼克頓-香港音樂節], and performed chamber works by established Canadian and International composers. Matt was featured in part of the “Young Artist Overture” series by Soundstreams Canada, and as a composer-performer at the Stone in New York City and the Integral House in Toronto.
Matt holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance and a Master of Music in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto. He also holds a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music UK (LRSM) and an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto (ARCT). mattpoon.com
鋼琴家兼作曲家潘昊［Matt Poon］用表演、創作、研究和即興演奏去倡導及推進我們當代的音樂。全身心的投入爲他帶來了諸多獎項，包括Eckhardt-Gramatté全加拿大國家競賽一等獎和最佳委託作品表演獎（加拿大藝術局獎項），美國弦樂四重奏作曲競賽一等獎，多倫多青年交響樂團作品公開徵集一等獎。潘先生是加拿大藝術局和安大略省藝術局資助受領人。他被加拿大廣播公司（CBC/Radio-Canada）選入「2016年30位30歲以下當紅加拿大古典音樂家」。
作爲Eckhardt-Gramatté全加國競賽獲勝者，潘先生曾在加拿大舉辦十城巡演，並在意大利首次舉辦音樂會，為宣傳當代鋼琴音樂：包括他自己的作品，以及由當代在世的加拿大和國際作曲家創作的延伸技巧［extended techniques］曲目。潘先生曾在多媒體作品中演出，為Hong Kong Exile（溫哥華的跨領域藝術劇團）擔任MIDI鍵盤琴手及劇團表演者在加拿大（包括班夫藝術中心［Banff Centre for the Arts］）、歐洲（包括荷蘭的Gaudeamus Muziekweek和格拉斯哥的Sonica Festival）、和香港（大館）巡迴演出，並為Volcano Theatre（多倫多的表演劇團）擔任鋼琴即興演奏者在加拿大巡迴演出。作爲曼哈頓音樂學院當代樂團（Tactus）和多倫多大學當代樂團（gamUT）的前成員，潘先生在首屆曼哈頓-香港音樂節上首演了香港和美國作曲家的室樂作品，此外還演奏加拿大及各國著名作曲家的室樂作品。潘先生參與了加拿大 Soundstreams 的「年輕藝術家序曲」系列，並在紐約市的 Stone 和多倫多的 Integral House 擔任作曲兼演奏者。
潘先生在曼哈頓音樂學院獲鋼琴演奏碩士和作曲碩士學位，並在多倫多大學獲音樂學士學位。他並擁有英國皇家音樂學院的專業文憑（LRSM）和多倫多皇家音樂學院的附屬文憑 （ARCT）。 mattpoon.com