Credit – Julie Howden
Matthew Whiteside is an Irish composer and ARtistic Director of The Night With… based in Glasgow. Winner of the SMIA Award for Creative Programming at the Scottish Awards for New Music 2020, named as one of the Lists Hot 100 for 2019, ‘One to Watch’ in the Herald’s Culture Awards 2017 and winner of the Light Moves Innovative Use of Sound Award for his work Entangled with Marisa Zanotti. His music has been described as “Effective and Unsettling” by BBC Music Magazine and “post-minimalist bold sparseness” by the Herald.
Recent work has included Night Thoughtsi, commissioned by Crash Ensemble for première at New Music Dublin 2020; a short opera Little Black Lies commissioned by Scottish Opera Connect, with libretto by Helene Grøn; Rama, commissioned by The Night With… for Ensemble Offspring, and Entangled, commissioned by the Institute of Physics for the 2018 NI Science Festival.
He has received international performances by ensembles and performers such as the RTÉ NSO, Red Note Ensemble, the Aurea Quartet, Pauline Kim Harris and Diagenesis Duo at venues such as New York University, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Glasgow City Halls, Salem Artworks in New York and the Belfast International Festival at Queen’s. He has been commissioned by Cottiers Chamber Project and Lorimer Productions for Cappella Nova and co-commissioned by sound festival and R-Space gallery to collaborate with Dominika Mayovich to create an interactive sound/art installation which resulted in Exhibiton Music.
Whiteside’s Solo for Viola D’amore and Live Electronics, recorded by Emma Lloyd was described as having the overall effect of ‘one of meditation – a Japanese stone garden whose raked ripples have been brought into sound’ by Musicweb International and features on his debut album Dichroic Light released in 2015, supported by Creative Scotland. The album was the subject of two episodes of exploration on CyBC Cyprus, as well as broadcasts on BBC 3, BBC 6 Music, Lyric FM Ireland, Radio Horizon South Africa, and WFMT USA among others.
He composed the music for The End of the Game, Michael Palin’s Quest for Artemisia broadcast on BBC 4 during Christmas 2015 and has scored two feature films: Anna Unbound and The Loudest Sound.
Matthew is a member of the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin, where his music is housed, and is the CEO/Artist Director of The Night With… presenting concerts of interesting music in informal venues.
He is currently writing a new pieces for solo violin and electronics for Pauline Kim Harris, based on Dido’s Lament, and for Juice Vocal Ensemble for female vocal trio and electronics.
The Night With…
The Night With… is a charity based in Glasgow presenting salon style concerts of interesting music in intimate, informal venues across Scotland and further afield. Run by Matthew Whiteside, it provides development and commissioning opportunities for young and emerging composers.
Since 2016 there has been 43 concerts with 25 world premières in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast and Aberdeen. Performers have included Garth Knox, Ensemble Offspring, the Hermes Experiment, Red Note Ensemble, Juice Vocal Ensemble, James Turnbull, Wooden Elephant, Joanna Nicholson, Frances Cooper and Carla Rees. Premièred composers have included Claire McCue, George Stevenson, Diana Salazar, Emily Doolittle, Timothy Cooper, Sheena Philips, Matthew Whiteside and Samuel Beagles.
In addition to touring through multiple regions our commissioning work has been nationally recognised through Timothy Cooper’s 2019 commission …shadows that in darkness dwell… being shortlisted in the 2020 Ivor Composer Awards and Claire McCue’s I Regret Your Sex being shortlisted in the 2019 Scottish Awards for New Music. All of the 2019 commissions have been absorbed into the ensembles’ repertoire received multiple performances outwith Scotland and Northern Ireland and after The Night With… season. Recently The Hermes Experiment performed Ruari Patterson-Achenbach’s to sleep on it on BBC Radio Three.
The Night With… runs a yearly Call for Scores for self-defined emerging composers with no age limit. In 2017 this was for the Aurea Quartet and won by George Stevenson, in 2018 this was for Juice Vocal Ensemble and won by Sheena Phillips and in 2019 Ruari Patterson-Achenbach won the call for scores for the Hermes Experiment.
In addition to our concert activity The Night With… has set up a record label, TNW Music, primarily to release music recorded during the concerts but during Covid we have recording projects with Joanna Nicholson, Turning the Elements and Tom Poulsen, Danielle Price and Timothy Cooper. The Night With… Live Vol. One was released in March 2020 and the other recording projects will be released in 2021.