Sintchak, Matthew

Education

B.M. New England Conservatory of Music; M.M. Eastman School of Music; Auditor Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris; Performer's Certificate Eastman School of Music; DMA Eastman School of Music.

Biography

Saxophone professor Matthew Sintchak joined the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the fall of 2001.  An avid supporter of contemporary music, saxophonist Matthew Sintchak has commissioned and premiered over 100 new works for the instrument.  Sintchak enjoys challenging traditional notions of music performance by pushing boundaries of genre, instrumentation, medium, and style.  In the genre-stretching, multi-media Visions of America project, Sintchak worked with trombonist Mark Hetzler and photographer Katrin Talbot to combine live performance in an amalgamation of jazz, classical, and contemporary styles with original video and photographic material.  More recently, Sintchak formed the Fuse Trio (www.fusetrio.com), a chamber group for saxophone, clarinet, and piano with the goal of commissioning and performing “crossover” jazz/classical works.  They have already commissioned/premiered new works by Phil Woods, Paquito D’Rivera, and Christian Ellenwood.  Sintchak formed the Sonict Duo (www.sonictensemble.com), an experimental group that combines saxophone, video, and live electronics with the noted electronic audio-visual performer and composer Jeff Herriott.  Drawing on a combination of commissions, existing works, and newly created works by the duo themselves, Sonict creates an entirely new aural and visual space that defies easy categorization.  Sintchak has also been a member of other new music groups including Present Music (Milwaukee) and the Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble (formerly the Minnesota Contemporary Ensemble), which performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall for the London Jazz Festival (UK).

In more traditional settings, Sintchak is an active solo and chamber recitalist and clinician in demand around the world.  Performances have taken him throughout North America, Asia, and Europe.  In the quartet setting, Sintchak has performed and recorded with the Ancia Saxophone Quartet (www.anciaquartet.com) for more than 20 years.  Ancia’s second CD, Short Stories, was released on Naxos and features a commissioned work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon of the same title.  They have just released a new CD on Albany Records featuring a commissioned work by Grammy-winning composer Libby Larsen that received its world premiere in Strasbourg, France at the World Saxophone Congress.

As an orchestral musician, Sintchak has worked with the Hartford, Portland (Maine), and Rochester symphonies and toured Japan twice with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.  He currently performs with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.

As a jazz musician, he has collaborated with Roscoe Mitchell, Ray Anderson, David Bixler, Ingrid Jensen, Steve Wilson, Chris Vadala, Fred Sturm, Carl Allen, Derek Brown (BEATBoX SAX), Ryan Truesdell, Dean Sorenson, Larry Gray, Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Paul Tynan, and many others.

Sintchak studied at the Eastman School of Music (DMA with Performer’s Certificate and MM), the Paris Conservatory (auditor on a grant from the Beebe Foundation), and the New England Conservatory of Music (BM). His primary teachers have been Ramon Ricker, Claude Delangle, Kenneth Radnofsky, and George Garzone.  He is a Conn-Selmer and Vandoren endorsed artist and has recorded for Naxos, Albany, Innova, the University of Iowa Composers’ and Zimbel labels.  Sintchak is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Classes Taught

Studio Saxophone, Saxophone Techniques, Jazz Ensemble I, Saxophone Quartets/Ensemble, Survey of American Jazz, Jazz Pedagogy, Sonict New Music Ensemble