Matt Van Brink, composer, pianist accordionist

Spring Morning @ Bellerose Avenue Elementary

2009-05-20T23:30:00Z

I'm really tickled that Nancy Reycraft will lead a performance of SPRING MORNING at my old elementary school. Hometown friends, this time the music comes to you!

Bellerose Avenue Elementary School
East Northport, NY

California State University Northridge Symphony

2009-05-09T00:00:00Z

CSUN Symphony concert... including a performance of Sic Semper Nobis. Northridge Composition Prize performance. Place TBA

The Animal Estates Home Buyers' Tour @ Harlem School of the Arts

2009-02-14T17:00:00Z

with Jennifer S. Greene & Rami Vamos Harlem School of the Arts Gathering Space 645 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York

Sextet @ FSU New Music Festival

2009-01-30T15:30:00Z

The Florida State University College of Music will present my SEXTET during its New Music Festival, January 29-31. Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida

Scrap Happy 2009 | 100 mp3s!

2009-01-01T00:00:07Z

100 scrappy mp3s to celebrate 2009. New discoveries, longtime tracks held dearly, and the in-between. LINK (393MB). Schnitzelstu:cke! Previously: Scrap Happy 2008

My Year in Composing 2008

2008-12-31T22:17:47Z

For the months that don't show any activity, assume I spent them worrying about something or other.

Prelude & Fughetta fl., vln., & vcl. | student performers (January)
The In Between , solo cello (February)
White, Those That Stayed Still, SATB a capella (May)
The Animal Estates Home Buyers' Tour, children's musical (July) | Songs: Purple Martins' Majesty, Big Brown Bat, Beaver Dam!, At Least We're Eastern Mud Turtles, Awesome Possum, We All Know Some Animals / Animal Estates
Always Call Your Parents, children's musical (July) | Songs: Always Call Your Parents, Come on Over to the Old Piany, Johnny Hotstuff, The Robot Tango
A Single Winter's Day, holiday musical (September) Songs: A Winter Town in the Winter Time, It's Never the Same Without Snow, Four Seasons of Fun, Ice Pact, The Last Minute Plan, Plant a Seed, Just Adjust
Arrangements for Robert Honeywell's Lord Oxford Brings you the Second American Revolution, Live! (September)
Songs for BMI Musical Theater Workshops (ongoing)

Complete list on the music page

My Year in Books 2008

2008-12-30T14:57:14Z

Once again, a list of books I read, and mostly remembered. Links go to LibraryThing (Social bookmarking! Get it?!) Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 Douglas Adams: Life, the Universe and Everything (reread) Alan Moore: V for Vendetta Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep Ben Mezrich: 21: Bringing Down the House Michael Chabon: The Yiddish Policeman's Union Janna Levin: A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines Malcom Gladwell: Blink John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley Jack Kerouac: On the Road Okakura Kakuzo: The Book of Tea H.G. Wells: The Time machine Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Ernest and Other Plays Amy Sedaris & David Sedaris: The Book of Liz David Mamet: Glengarry Glen Ross Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness Roald Dahl: Tales of the Unexptected Nathanael West: Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locusts Eugene Ionesco: Rhinoceros (reread) Harold Pinter: The Homecoming Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire (reread) Walker Percy: The Moviegoer Steve Martin: Born Standing Up Michael Lewis: The Blind Side Tony Kushner: Angels in America CHILDREN'S BOOKS Roald Dahl: The BFG Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, ... Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out Matthew Reinhart: Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy C.S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis: The Magician's Nephew C.S. Lewis: The Horse and His Boy C.S. Lewis: Prince Caspian

My Year in Cities 2008

2008-12-30T14:35:08Z

Lincoln, NH * New York, NY * Alajuela, Costa Rica Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica La Leona, Costa Rica Playa Samara, Costa Rica Liberia, Costa Rica San Jose, Costa Rica East Northport, NY * Mexico City, Mexico Puebla, Mexico Verzcruz, Mexico Somerville, Mass. * Boston, Mass. Pittsfield, Mass. Bolton Landing, NY Montreal, Canada Quebec City, Canada Winsted, CT West Hartford, CT One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited on non-consecutive days and deserve special recognition. Up with cities! Previously: Year in Cities 2003-2007

Stephanie & Saar DUO | Initial Ascent @ Queens College

2008-12-12T00:30:00Z

... including the premiere performance of INITIAL ASCENT, for two pianos. Stephanie Ho & Saar Ahuvia DUO play works by New York composers. Music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Philippe Bodin, Charles B. Griffin, Jay Anthony Gach, Denise Broadhurst, and MVB.

Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Concert Hall Aaron Copland School of Music Queens College CUNY Flushing, NY

My Favorite ASCII Character

2008-12-09T16:44:11Z

My favorite ASCII character has to be the pipe: |. - It is immediately recognizable as a separator, an orthographic scythe. - In that capacity, It is more unassuming than the forward slash /. - It's right there on the keyboard, an underdog key, coupled with the wretched blackslash. - It is the tallest, lankiest character on the keyboard, taller than uppercase i and even taller than the square bracket: I [ ) | - It has a cool, monosyllabic plosive moniker. - Why not make the pipe your favorite ASCII character, too?

A Single Winter's Day

2008-12-07T19:30:00Z

This year's Holiday Community Music at Concordia Conservatory is my own, A Single Winter's Day. After writing several 30-minute musical theater pieces for their Summer Musical Theater Workshops, I am excited to have written a new 50-minute work. The musical was commissioned by the Conservatory, with support from the ASCAP Foundation, and will be offered as part of its tuition-free community outreach program, intended for students age 6-18. PHOTOS MP3 ("A Winter Town in the Winter Time")

Schoenfeld Campus Center Concordia College Bronxville, NY Tickets $20 / $10

Ibuki Trio @ Conway Hall Sunday Concert Series | Le Tombeau de Couperin

2008-11-24T00:00:00Z

The Ibuki Trio performs my arrangement of Ravel's LE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN on the Conway Hall Sunday Concert Series Conway Hall, London UK

Lord Oxford Brings You the Second American Revolution, Live!

2008-11-22T17:53:04Z

My arrangements and orchestrations of Robert Honeywell's Lord Oxford... opens on October 23 and runs through November 22, Thursday-Saturday 8pm. I will be joining the band on accordion for the first two shows. The show imagines a revolution against the British in 2008, the colonists having lost the first one back in the 1770s. With Gyda Arber, Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, Rasheed Hinds, Robert Honeywell, Iracel Rivero, Alyssa Simon. Arrangements and orchestrations by MVB. Developed with Sue Morrison. Written and composed by Robert Honeywell. Directed by Moira Stone With musicians Maria Dessena, Benjamin Ickies & Abe Pollack. Tickets & Info Brick Theater 575 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

Hofstra Chamber Singers | A Thousand Tender Passages @ Garden City, NY

2008-11-20T01:00:00Z

Hofstra Chamber Singers, directed by David Fryling will perform A THOUSAND TENDER PASSAGES. Coveting thy neighbor's wife? Presidentially scandalous! Cathedral of the Incarnation Cathedral Avenue, Garden City, NY Tickets $15 / Free for kids & Hofstra community

Noah Getz @ Stella Adler School | Sonata for Saxophone and Piano

2008-11-18T00:00:00Z

Noah Getz will perform my SONATA FOR SAXOPHONE AND PIANO at the Stella Adler School's Harold Clurman Concert Series along with other works with piano, and for saxophone solo.
FREE
with Ann Kang, piano
The Stella Adler School
31 West 27th Street, New York