Music Department
University of Wisconsin Whitewater
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Matan Rubinstein
Lecturer
Piano
OFFICE: CA 2005PHONE: (262) 472-5627
EMAIL: rubinstm@uww.edu
Biography
Born in Israel, Matan began his involvement with music from a young age receiving classical training for piano. At age 15, having been exposed to the work of Cecil Taylor and other music of the Jazz Avant-garde, he turned to improvisation as a primary interest. Increasingly interested in composition, he studied with Andre Hajdu and Menachem Wisenberg, and after a move to New York City, received his Bachelor's degree in Jazz Composition from the Manhattan School
of Music. He is currently completing his DMA in Composition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Prof. Stephen Dembski, where he was awarded a University Fellowship.
He has composed music in a variety of contexts and venues including works for orchestra and chamber groups, jazz orchestras and combos, as well as projects for dance, film, television and interactive media. In Madison, he collaborated with internationally renowned choreographer Li Chiao-Ping on several works, including a nationally touring evening length work and other projects, and artist Douglas Rosenberg, for whom he had written music for a multi-media work at 2006, and scored music for 'Verge,' a dance film project aired on Wisconsin Public Television.
Matan has been active internationally as a pianist playing jazz and contemporary improvisation. His appearances include the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, as well as performances in Chicago and Montreal. He is active performer regionally, collaborating with musicians ranging from Jazz singer Jan Wheaton, with whom he recorded a well-received duo CD, to Hanah Jon Tailor Artet, with whom he toured internationally, as well as his own groups, the Modular Music Ensemble, a genre-bending group playing his original music, and the Sada Trio, a jazz piano trio with Rodrigo Villanueva on drums and Hal Miller on Bass.
Prior to his appointment to UW Whitewater, Matan held the post of Guest Lecturer at the UW Madison's Center for Jewish Studies, where he taught a course surveying the work of Jewish musicians in America from concert to Broadway stages, Rock n' roll to Hip-hop. He has also taught music theory at the UW Madison School of Music.