Matthew Langford

Matthew Langford is a composer, trumpet player, and interdisciplinary sound artist living in Fountain, Colorado.

As a trumpet player, Langford performed professionally in orchestras and chamber music settings for over a decade and alongside artists at the Brevard Music Center Orchestral Studies Institute, the London Symphony Orchestra Youth Institutes, and as a member of the world-renowned Eastman Wind Ensemble. While he has much experience in traditional ensemble settings he feels at home in experimental music spaces and has also performed and recorded with talented song-writers in the US and abroad in a wide variety of styles. Most recently in 2024 Langford completed a solo recording project and sound installation at the Tank Center for Sonic Arts in Rangely, Colorado with an upcoming album release in the coming year. Driven by his love for cross-cultural collaboration and engagement, Langford has led multiple trips to Burundi and the DR Congo to make music with some inspiring African musicians and ensembles including the Kimbanguiste Symphony Orchestra in Kinshasa, DR Congo.

Langford has composed for New York City's Brass Project and members of the Ossia New Music Ensemble and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, among others. Drawn to the nuance and complexities he sees in nature and in people, Langford's compositional process is often rooted in free improvisation while also blending elements of both impressionism and expressionism to create worlds of sound and meaning that relate deeply with a human subconscious experience of the world. His techniques allow for intuitive and spontaneous discovery within conceptual design framework related to the essence of what is being explored. Some of his current explorations involve transitional space, nonlinear forms, and an unusual attention to how sound fills its environment.

A passionate educator in both private and classroom settings, Langford engages his students in a playful culture rooted in freedom of creativity, imagination, and independent musicianship. He loves teaching trumpet and composition lessons and finds great joy in seeing his students gain confidence in and awareness of their own artistic intuition while simultaneously developing valuable performance technique and musicianship skills.

Langford holds a Master of Music degree and an Arts Leadership Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He is currently the instrumental music teaching faculty at Fountain Valley School of Colorado where he lives and works today.