Performance from November 2004 at The Ohio State University, conducted by the composer.

Sinfonietta for double wind quintet

Concertpiece for trombone and wind ensemble.  This performance by Russel Mikkelson conducting the Ohio State University Wind Symphony, with the composer as soloist, March 2006.

Homo sapiens trombonensis

Fourth of my cycle of five songs from William Shakespeare's Hamlet Act IV, scene 5, all sung by Ophelia as she descends into madness.

Giving of Flowers from Ophelia Songs

My woodwind quintet, Azteca Dances, in the premiere performance by the Solaris Woodwind Quintet, March 16, 2014 at Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, Ohio.  Part of a concert sponsored by the Cleveland Composers Guild.

Azteca Dances

2004 signature work.  Also available in a 2012 version for flute, clarinet, marimba, violin, viola, cello, and piano.

Martian Dances

Setting for mezzo-soprano and piano of Emily Dickinson's "Safe in their alabaster chambers," "I never saw a moor," and "I heard a fly buzz when I died."  Performed by Crystal Stabenow (mezzo-soprano) and Lukas Swidzinski (piano) on November 13, 2005 at the Ohio State University. 

Poems of Emily Dickinson

The 2013 version of my work-in-progress for unaccompanied trombone.

Twenty Views of the Trombone (September 2013)

World premiere performance on November 1, 2015 of my original composition for chamber orchestra by the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra, Antoine Clark, music director and conductor.

...into the suggestive waters...

Live recording of my Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2013).  Lakeland Civic Orchestra, Matthew C. Saunders, conductor, with Avguste Antonov, piano.  Concert recording November 13, 2016, Rodehorst Performing Arts Center, Lakeland Community College, Kirtland, Ohio.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Premiere performance of Piano Sonata (2010), performed by Dianna Anderson, Oklahoma Music Teachers Association 2011 Conference, Oklahoma Christian University, June 2011.  Preview score available at http://issuu.com/matthewsaunders/docs/piano_sonata_complete_60254be0d36e21

Piano Sonata (2010)

Composed for Orieta Dado, 2008.  Reading session performance by the Manhattan Piano Trio, April 19, 2010.

Piano Trio

Piece for flute choir commissioned by Katherine Borst Jones in honor of Donald E. McGinnis.  Premiere performance by the Ohio State University Flute Troupe, March 2013.

Nod a Don

Fantastic performance by Selena Adams Maytum, horn, and Kelsey Adams Brunson, marimba, in March 2013 at University of Colorado-Boulder of my original composition "South Africa" for horn and marimba.  The piece was originally commissioned by Nancy Joy of New Mexico State University, with assistance of the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund of the International Horn Society.

South Africa

Piece for clarinet and unpitched percussion.  Commissioned by Jennifer Laubenthal and premiered by her, March 2013, at Eastern New Mexico University.  Required percussion:  hi-hat, triangle, wood block, snare drum, metal shaker, claves, bass drum (pedal operated), suspended cymbal, temple blocks (5), machine castanets, gongs (2).

Performance materials available at www.martiandances.com

Preview score at: http://issuu.com/matthewsaunders/docs/lady_glides_on_the_moon_complete/1

Lady Glides on the Moon

Performed by David Cole conducting the Florida Gulf Coast University Symphony Orchestra, April 16, 2013, Ft. Myers, Florida
0.00:  Mvt. 1: To Maestro Glass in his Diamond Jubilee
3:42:  Mvt. 2:  Meditation in memoriam Maestro Hovhaness
8:05:  Mvt. 3:  Finale for Maestro Sibelius

Each of the three composers for whom the movements were named were important influences on my musical development during my teens and early 20s.  

Suite for String Orchestra

Piece for symphonic band composed for the Upper Arlington High School Symphonic Bands in honor of John Blevins.  Performed by the Kansas State University Concert Band under the direction of Anna Eaverson, March 2010.  Score and parts available for purchase at www.martiandances.com.

Matthew C. Saunders has taught music from kindergarten to college in styles from madrigal to mariachi, and strives to make beautiful music for and with captivating people.  He has climbed mountains, saved someone’s life, and watched the moon rise over the prairie.  He has loved, lost, and loved again; helped friends find salvation, and found it for himself as well; taught genius students, and learned from genius teachers.  On the day his son Noah was born, he gave him his first shampoo, and looks forward to teaching him to catch a baseball and ride a bicycle sometime around 2015.  His dreams are to walk on Mars, hear a grand piano fall into an orchestra pit, make more people laugh than cry, and love his wife Becky passionately and forever.  He plays trombone and is always getting better at playing piano, and in the course of a long, love-filled, productive life, he wants to compose the Great American Symphony, ride the rails, hike the trails, read all of the good books, finally watch The Godfather, and storm the castles in the air.  He will never write unlistenable music, stop stargazing or lose money in Vegas.  He doesn’t call his mother often enough, but he still tries to do a good turn daily.  He is always up for a few hands of euchre or a good game of chess, likely winning the former and losing the latter.  

Dr. Saunders is the music department chair at Lakeland Community College, where he teaches music theory and the history of popular music, and directs the Lakeland Civic Orchestra.  Prior to coming to Lakeland in 2012, he held the position of Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Oklahoma Panhandle State University from 2007 to 2012.  He received degrees in music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and The Ohio State University.  Dr. Saunders studied composition with Donald Harris, Thomas Wells, Jan Radzynski and Wes Flinn, and trombone with Joseph Duchi and Tony Chipurn.  His fourteen years’ experience in music education includes teaching band, general music and music theory in public elementary, middle, high schools, colleges, and universities in rural, suburban and urban settings in Ohio, Georgia, and Oklahoma.  Dr. Saunders’ original compositions have been performed across the country, including performances at national conferences of the International Horn Society and the Society of Composers, and he has presented his research on rhythm at conferences of the College Music Society and the Society of Composers, and at the Oklahoma Music Theory Roundtable and the Aspen Composers Conference.  He was the conference co-host of the 2012 Society of Composers Region VI Conference, held at West Texas A&M University in October 2012.  He received the 2007 Ruth Friscoe Prize for composition and was the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association 2011 Commissioned Composer.  His music is published by Imagine Music, and he has written articles for The Journal of Band Research, Music Educators Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Instrumentalist.  He is on the web at www.martiandances.com, but the physical Dr. Saunders lives in Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio with his wife Becky and their son Noah.  


Matthew C. Saunders

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