Composers
Mattie Levy
1999 -About
Described as multi-faceted, relevant, and fun, Mattie Levy is a writer, poet, and performer/composer who graduated with an MA in Composition and MM in Oboe Performance from the University of Michigan (UM) in May 2024. Her recent works include "Floating on the Wings of Our Planet," an immersive media piece addressing climate change, and her Presser award-winning cross-disciplinary show "Concert Black," which follows three Black classical musicians and their journeys through life. Her essay “If my Imposter Syndrome had a Voice and the Reality of the Situation” was published in the online journal: Music and Politics in the Moment. She was also a finalist in the 2022 Emory Symphony Orchestra call for scores, and in 2026, she is presenting a fully produced opera at HERE arts center in New York City as part of the Experiments in Opera Writer’s Room.
By focusing on harmonic and melodic development with affect, innovative percussive textures, polymeter, and beat displacement, Mattie creates and performs music that refreshes traditional forms and harmony. She challenges audience expectations and keeps them engaged through works that expand the boundaries of what instruments can do. She takes usual archetypes, cadences, and forms and subverts them. She blends musical styles and puts different instruments and voices in contradictory contexts, explores extended techniques, and experiments with the alteration of timbres.Outside of her individual imaginings, socially engaged artistry is also a key component in her artistic process and daily life. This is exemplified by her role as Community Engagement Coordinator for Prison Creative Project where she facilitates connections between people impacted by the justice system, the arts, and the Michigan community. As a Black queer woman and arts activist, she looks for ways to amplify racial equity, LGBTQIA2s+ voices, inclusivity, accessibility, and social change in her work. By highlighting marginalized voices, while contemplating universal concepts such as loss, independence, joy, and relationships, Mattie aims to humanize the Black and Black queer experience beyond trauma. This mission informs her work as an arts administrator and process as a creative to develop a shared home for marginalized voices in the arts and beyond.