Matthew Evan Taylor Bio
AfroPneumatic composer and improviser Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor (1980) creates music that is inspired by community, time, and the human. His current practice is built upon AfroPneumaism, a liberatory framework for music composition, performance, and community building which connects musical action, musical timeframes, and audience witnessing to the breath Emerging in part from the Black Lives Matter Movement, Dr Taylor’s AfroPneumaism answers the urgent and poignant refrain “I can’t breathe!” with a defiant “I will breathe! I must breathe!”
Dr Taylor’s music has been performed internationally including engagements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the 17th World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France; Michelle Grabner’s Poor Farm in Wisconsin; and Chineke! Orchestra’s African Music Festival in the United Kingdom. His pandemic era cycle, Postcards to the MET, has garnered over 500,000 views on Instagram while his Unheard Mixtapes (2020, New Amsterdam Records) were lauded for “ wrestl[ing] with the societal boundaries of Black artistry only to blast them apart ” (Dr Kori Hill, I Care if You Listen) He has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with such ensembles as Del Sol Quartet and Metropolis Ensemble; visual artists Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and Danielle Tegeder; dancers/choreographers Laurel Jenkins, Priscilla Marrero, Lida Winfield, and Julian Barnett; and musicians Marilyn Crispell and Elliott Sharp.
Dr. Taylor is a BMI composer based in Oakland, California and is Assistant Professor of Composition at UC Berkeley