Dr. Matthew Kiroff
Composition, Piano, Contemporary Music, Free Jazz
Matthew Kiroff earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at The Cleveland Institute of Music. He later earned a Doctorate from Cornell University studying composition with Karel Husa and jazz with Karlton Hester.
His spectrographic analysis of the music of Cecil Taylor was published in Jazz Forschung, Graz, Austria. His quintet “Ombre” was performed at The International Society of Contemporary Music’s World Music Days, Warsaw. He has received awards and grants from The Foundation For Contemporary Arts, The ASCAP foundation, The Ford and Cleveland Foundations, The Bascom Little Fund, and The Ohio Arts Council. and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts,
His current ensemble “The Pith and Root of Sleep,” which he has directed since 1997, is an amalgam of free jazz, improvised Avant-garde classical music, folk idioms, improvised modern dance, performance art, installation art and visual art in all forms, including constructivist sculptures, video art, and site specific environmental works.
His ensemble performs extensively at events and venues throughout the Midwest such as Ingenuity Festival, Rooms to Let, Spread Art Detroit, and The Go Factory.
He plays two micro-tonally altered Wurlitzer electric pianos with an interlocking system of modes, which between them create the entire 24-note to the octave quarter tone scale.
Currently he teaches at The Cleveland Institute of Art as well as maintaining a private teaching studio.
Brookside Music Studio 