Matei Gheorghiu

MATEI GHEORGHIU

Matei Gheorghiu (b. 1984) is a Romanian-Finnish composer. After completing his Bachelor's degree at the National University of Music Bucharest (UNMB) with Nicolae Coman, Dan Dediu and Octavian Nemescu, he continued with Master’s studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Tapio Tuomela. He has taken part in numerous masterclasses and workshops with composers including Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka Tiensuu, Marko Stroppa, Joshua Finberg and Herman Obst. In 2016, he bgan Doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy with Veli-Matti Puumala.

A former Chairman of the young Finnish composers' society "Korvat Auki" (Ears Open Society), Matei was also the society’s longest-serving chairman and only the second foreign-born composer to hold this position. He was also Artistic Director of the anniversary festival of the "Korvat 35, How far can you hear?" society.

Matei’s repertoire covers music from almost all genres apart from opera and ballet. Music by him has been performed in 12 countries: Romania, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Estonia and Canada. He has five times been selected for the Ung Nordisk Music festival, was chosen for the “Le Forum” residency with the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne in Montreal in 2014 and the concert of his works, some large-scale, organised by the Sibelius Academy was the first concert in a series entitled “Atso’s Corner” hosted by conductor Atso Almila in 2014.

Mateil has collaborated with many notable ensembles, among them Avanti! (Fin), defunensemble (Fin), Uusinta (Fin), Zagros (Fin), Athelas (Den), Caput (Ice), Profil (Rom), ICon Arts (Rom), the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (Swe), the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (Fin) and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Can). Notable festivals at which music by him has been performed include Le Forum (Can), Musica Nova Helsinki (Fin), Time of Music (Fin), the Tampere Biennale (Fin), Summer Sounds (Fin), Pasimusic (Fin) and Ung Nordisk Musik (Swe, Den, Ice, Nor).