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Dr. Matthew Schlomer, Director of Bands
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Dr. Matthew Schlomer serves as the Director of Bands at the University of Wyoming where he oversees the band program, conducts the Wind Symphony, and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Dr. Schlomer is an international artist whose creativity flourishes across many genres. His diverse background as a saxophonist, composer, arranger, dancer, actor, and an award-winning visual artist informs his unique approach to performance and concert programming. He avidly pursues collaborations and has created works with writers, chefs, actors, poets, rap artists, singers, filmmakers, choreographers and visual artists. As an advocate of new music, he regularly commissions and premieres works that explore the intersections of different art forms and promotes underrepresented composers. Before his appointment at the University of Wyoming, Schlomer was a conductor at the renowned Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. There he founded the Composer's Sandbox, a program for composers that fosters experimentation and creativity; and the Sound Garden Project, a chamber music incubation program that reimagines the performers’ and audience’s experiences with classical music. Under his leadership, ensembles have performed with luminaries such as Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, John Bruce Yeh, Tim McAllister, Otis Murphy, Emil Khudyev, Linda Strommen, Vincent DiMartino, John Aley, and Gerry Pagano to name a few. Past positions have included conducting residencies with the Traverse City Dance Project and the experimental percussion group Clocks in Motion, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Luther College, Edgewood College, and he has over 12 years experience in public and private schools grades 5-12. Schlomer is an active guest conductor and passionate educator who presents his innovative pedagogy to national and international audiences. Conducting engagements include the World Youth Wind Ensemble at Interlochen Arts Camp, Singapore American School Music Festival, Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, Italy, the Baldwin Wallace Festival at Carnegie Hall, and the ECMEA Honor Band in Buffalo, New York. He won the 2018 American Prize for his live performance of Michael Colgrass’ “Winds of Nagual,” the 2022 Sutton Foster Award for Best Musical Direction with “Pippin,” and a major grant from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council to strengthen communities through the arts. He was also a 2020 finalist for the National Association for Music Education’s George N.Parks Award for Music Education. He is a board member of the International Music Project that promotes international musical exchanges between the United States and major European conservatories. Dr. Schlomer earned masters and doctoral degrees in conducting with a minor concentration in dance from the University of Wisconsin, a bachelor degree in music education from the University of Colorado at Boulder with an emphasis in Arts Administration, and a gold medal in saxophone from Bordeaux Regional Conservatory in France. While at UW-Madison he studied conducting with Scott Teeple and twice received the Richard Church Memorial Conducting Award. His studies in movement theory and dance with Kate Corby and Mary Brennan inspire his ongoing research into the interaction between the body and mind. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the National Band Association. |
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