Matthew Quayle is Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Middlebury College, where he teaches courses in composition, songwriting, and music theory. His eclectic compositional output ranges from concert orchestral works to cabaret songs. He has received commissions and performances from Akira Saxophone Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Allentown Symphony Orchestra, Emanuele Arciuli, Arditti String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, The Brass Project, Claire Chase, eighth blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, Gail Levinsky, Locrian Chamber Players, Silverwind Duo, Ashley Sandor Sidon, United States Air Force Strings, Vuorovesi Trio, and Westchester Symphonic Winds. His recordings include the albums Matthew Quayle: Woodwind Chamber Music (Centaur Records 2024), Matthew Quayle: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 (Naxos Records 2018, with the Avalon Quartet), and Songs Without Words: Solo Piano Music of Matthew Quayle (Albany Records 2015, self-performed). He also wrote the music and lyrics for Amazed By You, a 2013 indie album of original cabaret songs with soprano Marian Murphy.
Quayle has performed widely as a pianist and chamber musician. Recent performances include solo recitals of his original music in Berlin, Abu Dhabi, and Middlebury, VT, as well as performances at the Atlantic Music Festival of Bartók’s Rhapsody No. 2 with violinist Kyung-Sun Lee, Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata with Jameson Platte, and Chen Yi’s mixed quartet Qi. Other notable performances include Mozart and Fauré piano quartets on the Sembrich Concert Series in Bolton Landing, NY; piano quartets of Brahms and Anthony Holland at Skidmore College; and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with conductor Charles Schneider and the Skidmore College Orchestra. Quayle released the album Entr’acte with cellist Jameson Platte on Albany Records in 2019. It includes the cello sonatas of Debussy and Rachmaninoff, along with an original composition and short works by Chabrier, Cipullo, and Webern. Platte and Quayle perform with violinist Michael Emery as The Omega Trio.
Professor Quayle is director and founder of the Berlin Transatlantic Composers Workshop, which was launched in Germany in 2025. He has also been Composition Program Coordinator for the Atlantic Music Festival since 2023. Prior to moving to Vermont, he taught for over a decade at NYU Abu Dhabi, where he was Associate Arts Professor of Music and served as Program Head of Music. He also spent thirteen summers at New England Music Camp in Maine as Faculty Artist and Theory Coordinator. He holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (B.M., Composition and Piano Performance), University of Cincinnati (M.M., Composition), and New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Science (PhD, Composition and Theory).
