Matt LaRocca is a composer, performer and educator who you are just as likely to see playing with a band in a dive bar as conducting an orchestra. He is the Artistic Director of the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra and the Executive Director of Music-COMP, an organization that teaches composition to students throughout the country by pairing them with professional composers as mentors. Committed to new music and innovation, Matt is the Chair of Creative Projects and an Artistic Curator with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, Matt is equally at home in both the rock and classical worlds. His classical work has been commissioned by groups such as the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Youth Symphony and the Great Falls Symphony Orchestra, and from 2007-2008 he was the Faculty Composer in Residence for the Montana State University Symphony. His TV and film credits include music for PBS and the British Lung Foundation. As an arranger, Matt has worked with artists such as Guster, Henry Jamison and grammy-nominated mandolinist Matt Flinner to write orchestra and chamber music arrangements for performance and recordings. Artistic residencies include an expedition to the high arctic through The Arctic Circle organization and composition/improvisation teaching residencies at schools throughout New England and California. Matt frequently performs as a violist and guitarist in classical, rock and improvisation ensembles. Current projects include free improvisation group House, Ways and Means in which he plays the electric viola, and the dance collective Ergo Movement.
Matt lives in Waterbury with his wife Heather, and their children Jasper, Sawyer and Macy. He holds degrees in chemistry and music from Middlebury College, a M.Mus in composition from Carnegie Mellon University, and a DMA in composition from Boston University.
In the news:
- 1/18/23 – Seven Days, “VSO Jukebox Series Explores the Scandalous Private Lives of Composers at Adults-Only Concerts”
- 9/1/20 - Distanced Digital Collaborations: Matt Larocca and the VT Quarantine Collective
- 12/14/20 - Music for Days Like This
- 9/26/18 - VSO "Made in Vermont" Tour ft. world premiere composition by Matt LaRocca
- 9/6/17 - Seven Days, "Composer Matt LaRocca's Crossover Appeal"
