Matt Sargent (b. 1984) is a composer, guitarist, recording engineer, and music technology specialist based in New York, where he is an assistant professor of music at Bard College. A versatile artist with an international reputation for his prolific musical life on the concert stage and in the recording studio, Sargent’s music has been described “remarkable from all angles.” (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine)
His albums include Illuminations (Sawyer Editions, 2024), Bend (Waveform Alphabet, 2023), Between Time and After (Chen Li Music, 2023), Tide (A Wave Press, 2020), Separation Songs (Cold Blue Music, 2019), Tide (for ten basses) (Marginal Frequency, 2019), and Ghost Music (Weighter Recordings, 2018).
His compositions have been described as “bringing a sharpened sense of the transcendental into the 21st century” (Paul Muller, Sequenza21) and “a veritable fountain of intensifying, kaleidoscopic spumes.” (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp) On Ghost Music, Bill Meyer writes, “this music isn’t about following in anyone’s footsteps; it uses bare resources to establish a bounded and essential place.” (The Wire Magazine) His guitar work on Bend, a duo album with Dani Dobkin, was described as “a guitar record retrieved from far in the future.” (Antonio Poscic, Research Music)
As a performer, Matt is active in commissioning new music for the electric guitar and pedal steel. He co-composed a new work for just intonation electric guitar with Robert Carl, Splectar, which can be heard on Carl’s Infinity Avenue (Neuma Records, 2024). His recording of James Romig’s hour-length piece for electric guitar, The Fragility of Time was released on A Wave Press in 2024. He is developing a collaborative concert-length project with flutist/composer Annie Nikunen. In 2026, he will be an artist-in-residence at the Avaloch Farm Institute to launch an improvising quartet with Stephen Haynes, Chris Cochrane, and Dani Dobkin.
In demand as an audio engineer for contemporary music, Matt’s recent production credits include David First’s Trust Patterns (XI Records), Catherine Lamb’s interius/exterius (Greyfade), Alvin Lucier’s One Arm Bandits (Important Records), Ricochet Lady (Black Truffle), and Works for the Ever Present Orchestra II (Black Truffle), Richard Teitelbaum’s Asparagus (Black Truffle), Musica Elettronica Viva’s Symphony No. 107 - The Bard (Black Truffle), Michael Ranta’s Transits: Volume I (Important Records), Sarah Hennies’s Spectral Malsconcities (New World Records), Kyle Gann’s Whispers, and Ensemble Signal / David Felder’s Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux (Coviello Contemporary), among many others.
As a researcher, Matt builds custom music software for other musicians and artists. His work has a special focus on musical algorithms, generative music environments, and real-time notation systems. He is on the scientific program committee for the 2026 Mathematics and Computation in Music international conference. He developed a networked music notation program for the Swiss-based Ever Present Orchestra, which facilitated performance of numerous large ensemble works composed by Alvin Lucier. Along with Eve Beglarian and bassist Robert Black, he wrote software, co-composed, and recorded A Murmur in the Trees. Praising his technical work on Robert Carl’s album, Splectra (Cold Blue Music), Fanfare Magazine writes, “he could find no better collaborator than composer and sound designer Matt Sargent.”