Matt Albert
Visiting Artist-in-Residence and Director of Chamber Music
Matt Albert is Director of Chamber Music and of SYZYGY at Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University. He was a founding member of eighth blackbird, with whom he received numerous awards, including first prizes at the Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, Coleman, and Fischoff Competitions. He recorded with the ensemble for Cedille Records, receiving two Grammy Awards for their performances (
strange imaginary animals in 2008 and Lonely Motel: Music from Slide in 2012). He has worked with artists as diverse as Meredith Monk, Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, and Wilco, and he subs regularly with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, where he currently holds the principal second violin chair under Marin Alsop, and he has been on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival since 2012. His principal teachers include Kenneth Sarch, Gregory Fulkerson, Kurt Sassmannshaus, and Almita Vamos. Matt holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Northwestern University School of Music.