Sounds of Diversity

about composers

Composer and conductor Matej Sloboda, originally from Slovakia, is a prominent figure on the contemporary music scene. A graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, he studied at the MWD in Vienna, KUG in Graz and UdK in Berlin with leading composers. He is currently a doctoral student at the JAMU and an intern at CalArts in California. His work is extremely diverse, including compositions for orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists, as well as film, theatre and new media. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Jan Levoslav Bella Prize for composition. Sloboda's compositions are regularly heard on stages in Europe, Asia as well as the USA. He has a long-standing collaboration with EnsembleSpectrum, with whom he regularly performs the most recent works of contemporary music as conductor. Under his direction, the ensemble has staged and performed over one hundred and thirty works, most of which were world or Slovak premieres. He is the founder of the UBU Collection (Utopian Gateway of Art) publishing contemporary music titles.