Matthew Aucoin

Matthew Aucoin (born April 4, 1990) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and writer best known for his operas. Aucoin has received commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the American Repertory Theater, the Peabody Essex Museum, Harvard University, and NPR's "This American Life". He was appointed as Los Angeles Opera's first-ever Artist-in-Residence in 2016. He is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.
Biography.
Aucoin was born and raised in the Boston area. While attending Medfield High School, Aucoin was the keyboardist in an indie rock band, Elephantom. He attended Harvard College, where he studied poetry, graduating "summa cum laude" in 2012. His mentors at Harvard included Jorie Graham and Helen Vendler. While an undergraduate, Aucoin conducted productions of "Die Fledermaus" and "Le Nozze di Figaro" with the Dunster House Opera Society, now known as Harvard College Opera. Aucoin then received a graduate diploma from The Juilliard School, where he studied with composer Robert Beaser. Concurrently, he served as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. Between 2013 and 2015, Aucoin was the Solti Conducting Apprentice at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.