MFA | Faculty

Matana Roberts As a Chicago native she was fortunate enough to be surrounded by musicians who showed her by distinct example the importance of listening to one's personal creative voice while at the same time using the profound and many layered traditions of jazz and improvised musics to act only as her creative guide, not as her creative definer. By using their mentorship, she has been able to craft a voice and creative focus that truly speaks to her own true artistic individuality. She feels strongly that her music should not only reflect the many colors and moods of universal human emotions, but that it should also testify, critique, document, and respond to the many socio-economic, historical, and cultural inequalities that exist not only in this country, but all over the world. Matana, a Vanlier fellow, Brecht Forum Fellow, and a 2008 and 2009 nominee for an Alpert Award in the Arts, has appeared as a collaborator on recordings and performances in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Canada with her own ensembles as well as with the collaborative jazz trio Sticks and Stones, Black Rock Coalition founder Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar, Reg E Gaines and Savion Glover's homage project to the late John Coltrane, Exploding Star Orchestra, Black Earth Ensemble, the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Julius Hemphill Sextet, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company . She has also released and continues to release recordings of her own ensembles. She most recently released a homage project to her hometown entitled The Chicago Project, on Barry Adamson’s Central Control International, featuring friends and supporters of her Chicago development. She has also recorded as a side person on recordings with such iconic bands as Godspeed You Black Emperor, TV on the Radio, Guillermo Scott Herren’s Savath and Savalas, Silver Mount Zion and sound artist Daniel Given’s Day Clear/Day dark. She is currently continuing to work hard on her 12 segment blood narrative performance piece COIN COIN, her solo series ART4YOUR EAR, her British ensemble PANTHER, and her new york based sextet ILLUMINATION . She is also the creator of the self published 'zine Fat Ragged: An Improvised Life. Matana is an avid freelancer on a wide array of artistic projects, is heavily involved in community youth and homeless outreach work in the united states and abroad as well as having played alongside some of the most intriguing creative sound visionaries spanning across genres of this time period. She currently resides in New York city and is a member of the AACM-- Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Website: http://www.matanaroberts.com/