Matthew Whiteside is a composer based in Glasgow whose work moves fluidly between concert music, audio-visual performance and screen. His music has been described as “Effective and Unsettling” by BBC Music Magazine and as “post-minimalist bold sparseness” by The Herald.
Whiteside’s practice is driven by sound as atmosphere and structure: chamber works, live electronics, installations and film scores sit side-by-side, often testing how listening changes when music is placed in unfamiliar contexts. He has been performed and broadcast widely, and his work spans opera, chamber music, sound installations and soundtracks.
A major strand of his output is collaborative audio-visual work. With long-time collaborator Marisa Zanotti, he won the Light Moves Innovative Use of Sound Award for Entangled, a project recognised for its integration of music and moving image.
Alongside his composing, Whiteside is the CEO and Artistic Director of The Night With…, and Vice Chair of the Musicians’ Union.
His screen work includes the BBC Four documentary Michael Palin’s Quest for Artemisia and feature films including Anna Unbound and The Loudest Sound.
As an author, he wrote The Guidebook to Self-Releasing Your Music, a practical handbook for composers, performers and sound artists, reviewed by Sound On Sound.