Composer and multi-instrumentalist Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor (1980) has been hailed as a “risk taker” (Neil De La Flor, Huffington Post), who has “…wrestled with the societal boundaries of Black artistry only to blast them apart…” (Dr. Kori Hill, I Care if You Listen) by making music that is “insistent and defiant…envelopingly hypnotic” (Alan Young, Lucid Culture). His work includes concert music, such as okussa: for Damascus (2023, commissioned by the Next Festival for Emerging Artists) for string orchestra; chamber music like Get Up! (2022, commissioned by Timothy McAllister) for alto saxophone and piano; online streaming projects, most notably Postcards to the Met (2021 – 2022, commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art) which has accrued over 500,000 views on Instagram and free improvisations as in his acclaimed Unheard Mixtapes (2020 – 2021, commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble; New Amsterdam Records). Dr. Taylor calls his recent work AfroPnuemaism: a liberatory practice that centers the human breath as a primary organizational structure of music. These compositions subvert the accepted assumptions of virtuosity, precision, and the sublime while harnessing the breathing process as a means to celebrate the humanity of performers and their witnesses.
In 2025, Dr. Taylor will release his first LP, Life Returns, which was recorded live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022.