Matthew R Dunne
Adjunct Instructor: Guitar
Guitarist and Composer Matthew Dunne has had a distinguished career as a performer and composer in both jazz and classical music. He has written music for many leading classical guitar soloists and ensembles, including David Russell and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, with several acclaimed recordings of his music on major labels, including the Grammy winning LAGQ Guitar Heroes CD. He is the only person to have won three awards from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, including their highest award, resulting in new music for guitar and for an independent film. His Twenty Miniatures were reviewed in Classical Guitar Magazine: "Without exception all are extremely well-written by a highly skilled composer who understands well the intricacies, nuances and characteristics of the guitar...these pieces are some of the best and most worthy contemporary solo guitar works that I've come across in quite a while." His sonata for David Russell, Landmarks, was reviewed by the Forth Worth, TX press: "Landmarks, a three-movement work by San Antonio-based composer Matthew Dunne, was one of the real standouts in an excellent program of works by some of the greats of the classical guitar repertoire... if Russell is looking for a signature work, Dunne has given him an excellent candidate with this 16-minute composition."
As a performer, Matthew has recorded CDs of classical guitar music, original jazz, orchestral film music, and as part of the Accidental Trio. He is also a dedicated educator; he is a Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he directed a thriving guitar program for 27 years, and founded an innovative summer workshop for guitarist-composers in the Adirondack Mountains in Keene Valley, NY. His students have won prizes in international competitions and enjoyed professional success for generations. He was the first guitarist to earn the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed a degree program in both Jazz and Classical guitar. He also has a Master of Music from Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.
In addition to teaching, composing, and performing, Matthew has extensive experience in music presenting and entrepreneurship. He directed a music marketing program at UTSA for several years, curated a major artist series for the UTSA College of Fine Arts, and directed an international guitar festival for 15 years which grew to become one of the more successful classical guitar festivals in the United States, with ambitious collaborative projects with most of the major arts organizations in San Antonio. One of these projects brought a guitar orchestra of children from the tiny Mexican town of Paracho, Michoacan to San Antonio to perform along with an ensemble consisting of top guitar students from both U.S. and Mexican University programs. Another ambitious project Matthew organized was a concert tour of Cuba in 2017 by a quartet of his students, performing music by American and Cuban composers and collaborating with Cuban guitar students.
In March 2020, Matthew and his wife Elizabeth Coccia moved full time to Keene, NY, in the heart of the Adirondack mountains, where he has continued to perform, compose, and contribute to the area's thriving arts scene.