Full Biography

Finn Mattingly (b. 2004) is a Munich-based composer from New Hampshire who's music explores the intersection of absurdist art, bluegrass rhythmic play, false projections of the overtone spectrum, and the physiology of performance practice in contemporary music. With gesture as the driving force behind much of his music, Finn composes around the temporal perception of material and its resulting functional implications. With a sonic predilection for the unstable, much of Finn's technique revolves around performance extremes, resulting in timbral combinations at the precipice of collapse juxtaposed against tactile, yet fluid sonorities. Often, a gestural landscape is decided on first before specific material is written based on physiological nuances of instrumental technique. Recently, he was awarded full financial support from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD / German Academic Exchange Service) to pursue postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

Finn has written for ensembles and performers across Europe and North America including Dissolution Ensemble, àktapha Ensemble, Barcelona Modern, members of Symphony Tacoma, the Fidelio Trio, the Aizuri Quartet, Peter Miyamoto, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, and Bridget Kibbey, as well as the Royal College of Music Brass and Wind Ensembles. Recently, he designed a fixed media installation titled Transpire for the Sounds of Blossom Festival at Kew Gardens in London, UK, which ran through March and April, 2025. Finn's music has been acclaimed by the Tribeca New Music Young Composer Awards, the American Prize in Composition, and ASCAP's Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Beyond formal education, experience in masterclasses includes the Péter Eötvös Foundation's Spotlight on Ramon Lazkano, the Barcelona Modern International Composition Course, the Akademie für Zeitgenössische Musik (Hochschule Luzern), àktapha Ensemble's Building Performance Practices Conference, Brevard Music Center, Atlantic Music Festival, and the Curtis Institute of Music's Young Artists Summer Program.

A recent graduate of the Royal College of Music as a Humphrey Searle Scholar with First Class Honours, Finn has studied with Ken Hesketh, Simon Holt, and Jonathan Cole, and is currently studying with Isabel Mundry in Munich. Other notable mentors include Dieter Ammann, Sarah Nemtsov, Francesca Verunelli, Hèctor Parra, Danial D'Adamo, Ramon Lazkano, David Ludwig, and Martin Bresnick. He is additionally a graduate of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and the New York Youth Symphony. An active writer, he regularly contributes to PRXLUDES Magazine, and was recently invited to present his Bachelor's research in the compositional process ("'Composer's Block:' Navigating Musical Creative Cognitive Processes Through Compositional Warm-Up") at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research. As an educator, he has taught privately with Through the Staff and was an inaugural member of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Young Adults Advisory Board.