– PROFESSIONAL BIO –

Matthew DeChant is a composer, musician, sound artist, and aural storyteller. He holds a degree in music composition from the Lawrence University Conservatory, and is active in many different artistic spheres from traditional folk to contemporary classical, avant-garde theatre to video games and podcasts. Matthew is passionate that all artistic mediums, new or old, niche or popular, are equally deserving of artistic value and academic respect.

Standout projects for him have included performing at the 2023 New Music Gathering as part of the Elm Trio (Ellie Lutterman/Lucian Baxter/Matthew DeChant), creating an hour-long original theatre production that combined contemporary classical music and Brechtian metatheatre cabaret, and writing incidental + dance music for a staging of the Fin Kennedy play The Domino Effect. 

A passionate performer and advocate of traditional folk music, Matthew is also the founder of the Singers’ Roost, a network for promoting folk singing and connecting folk singers across geographic and genre lines.

Matthew has studied with composers such as Joanne Metcalfe and Asha Srinivasan, theatre-makers such as Timothy X. Troy, Kathy Privatt, Margaret Paek, and Mauriah Donegan-Kraker, and other artists such as Tim Albright, Michael Clayville, Ann Ellsworth, and Loren Kiyoshi Dempster. He is currently working with the Center for Spiritual and Religious Life at Lawrence University, as well as doing freelance music work in Wisconsin and around the country.

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– PERSONAL BIO –

I consider myself a professional emotional manipulator, in a benevolent way. In short, I want to use the art of sound to make people feel things, and maybe once in a while, think things. In the world of music, I have a bit of a split personality. There is:

1. Matthew DeChant, the folksinger and songspinner. He is a folk musician who specializes in traditional unaccompanied singing, with an emphasis on English-language folk songs (of all nationalities and origins). He is also fluent in Wisconsin polka, Celtic and English trad, old-time, and Balkan/Slavic folk musics. He writes and performs original folk songs, as well as playing for folk dances of all varieties.

2. Matthew DeChant, the “classically-trained” composer. He makes weird funny noises, and most of the time, writes them down on paper so other people can make them too. He composes music for concert stages, theatre + dance, and film/other media (he also performs on stages through trombone and accordion and dance and voice). He would describe his music as the following:

Occasionally the two sides of me interact, and they are always aware of each other’s existence, but more often than not they’re content to let each other do their own thing. The two kinds of music I make fulfill very different purposes for me, so I don’t blend them as much as other multi-genre artists might (see the program notes for Rosario for a longer explanation of my thoughts on that subject). That being said, both have had significant impacts on my worldview and the way I think about musicking.

When I’m not making music, you can find me long-distance backpacking, studying western esotericism, or decomposing in a bog.