Biography
Matthew Aucoin earned commissions and saw his compositions staged at leading American opera companies before turning thirty. In 2018 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
Born in Boston in 1990, Aucoin (oh-COIN) grew up as the son of the Boston Globe’s drama critic. He graduated from Medfield High School, where he performed with the alternative-rock group Elephantom, then entered Harvard. There he worked with poet Jorie Graham and completed his degree summa cum laude in 2012. Turning toward music—he had already led opera productions while an undergraduate—he enrolled at the Juilliard School for composition studies with Robert Beaser. Concurrently he served as apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. During these years he completed the operas From Sandover (2010) and Hart Crane (2012), the Whitman Songs (2013), and a body of chamber pieces.
Aucoin’s profile rose sharply in 2015 with Crossing, an opera for which he supplied both score and libretto. Drawing on Walt Whitman’s service as a Civil War nurse, the work was commissioned by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The same year he produced the chamber opera Second Nature. Crossing drew national attention, prompting a New York Times profile, and in 2016 the composer became the first Artist-in-Residence at Los Angeles Opera. In that role he conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto and his own Crossing while also creating new work. He launched the concert series “AfterHours” and established the American Modern Opera Company. The MacArthur Fellowship, often called a “genius grant,” followed in 2018. Additional conducting engagements have included John Adams’ Doctor Atomic at Santa Fe Opera and appearances with the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Rome Opera Orchestra, and other ensembles. The grant’s first major outcome arrived in February 2020, when Aucoin led the premiere of Eurydice at Los Angeles Opera. Co-commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and set to a libretto by Sarah Ruhl, the piece reframes the Orpheus myth from Eurydice’s perspective.
Born in Boston in 1990, Aucoin (oh-COIN) grew up as the son of the Boston Globe’s drama critic. He graduated from Medfield High School, where he performed with the alternative-rock group Elephantom, then entered Harvard. There he worked with poet Jorie Graham and completed his degree summa cum laude in 2012. Turning toward music—he had already led opera productions while an undergraduate—he enrolled at the Juilliard School for composition studies with Robert Beaser. Concurrently he served as apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. During these years he completed the operas From Sandover (2010) and Hart Crane (2012), the Whitman Songs (2013), and a body of chamber pieces.
Aucoin’s profile rose sharply in 2015 with Crossing, an opera for which he supplied both score and libretto. Drawing on Walt Whitman’s service as a Civil War nurse, the work was commissioned by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The same year he produced the chamber opera Second Nature. Crossing drew national attention, prompting a New York Times profile, and in 2016 the composer became the first Artist-in-Residence at Los Angeles Opera. In that role he conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto and his own Crossing while also creating new work. He launched the concert series “AfterHours” and established the American Modern Opera Company. The MacArthur Fellowship, often called a “genius grant,” followed in 2018. Additional conducting engagements have included John Adams’ Doctor Atomic at Santa Fe Opera and appearances with the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Rome Opera Orchestra, and other ensembles. The grant’s first major outcome arrived in February 2020, when Aucoin led the premiere of Eurydice at Los Angeles Opera. Co-commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and set to a libretto by Sarah Ruhl, the piece reframes the Orpheus myth from Eurydice’s perspective.
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