"Sometimes people write music because the world seems off-kilter, because the world seems to be missing something and there's only one way to fix it. And sometimes people write music because the world seems so overwhelmingly beautiful that you want to preserve it any way you can." -Dylan Mattingly
A lot of you at Bard probably know Dylan already, and if you do, there's a large chance that you've heard him jamming on any of twelve instruments, or maybe heard him insist you listen to this song or piece or moment and watched it turn him into excitement incarnate when he put it on. If you know him, it's almost certain you know his musicianship is something special.
Dylan, a second-year conservatory student in composition and classics, was selected this week to be one of just twelve finalists in Orpheus Project 440, a contest for composers set up to honor the 40th anniversary of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Dylan's selection for the final round means he has already surpassed 48 formidable contestants, and that he has a significant chance of being one of the contest's four winners, who will each have a work commissioned by Orpheus and performed in Carnegie Hall.
In addition to being a prodigious composer, URF member, and awesome dude, Dylan is one of Bard's (and one of the world's) most dedicated and effective proponents of the music of our time. "Music is my optimal language," he says, "and I want it to express my world." His philosophies put great faith in new music's potential, while every vibrant second of his works inspire our own faith in its kinetic. As one commenter on his Orpheus page put it, "This is music that puts its loving arms around the present, as if nobody ever had the nerve to ask if classical music was dead. Dylan tells it like he feels it and nothing gets in the way."
In his brief time at Bard, Dylan has already made significant contributions of this sort to our community. Contemporaneous, the independent music ensemble to which he helped Bard give birth, has already achieved highly successful performances in New York City and other major venues, in addition to its well-received Bard shows and a hugely popular SMOG jam session. The group, which Dylan co-directs with fellow conservatory student David Bloom, plays eclectically programmed works written only by composers who are still living and writing music. Many of these composers are our age. Their goal is to promote and advance new music of which the fractured musical societies of the 21st century may not be aware. The existence of Contemporaneous, and Dylan's guidance, have both been invaluable to the Bard community's awareness, understanding and love of the music of our world.
Now, Bard, here is your chance to get involved in that movement. Musicians, appreciators, bystanders: this is a call to arms to help one of our own achieve this remarkable and well-deserved success. The judges of the Orpheus Project take comments on his contest page into account in their decisions. At this point, having listened to his five-minute clips on the page dozens of times over, they're probably looking at the comments more than anything right now. What YOU say will matter, so please take a few minutes to listen to the clips on his contest page and leave a comment about them. If those clips don't do it for you (and why should they?), here is the full recording (Part 1 and Part 2) of his most recent premiere, "Homeward Angel," commissioned and performed by Symphony Parnassus.
Please help Dylan win this one. One more time, this is his contest page and you should leave comments on it. Or else.
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