Matthew Hill, Pianist and Music Department Chair

My interests in theology, monastic spirituality, and the role of silence in music, engage my teaching, scholarship, and performing with a unique perspective.  As a teacher I act as a catalyst for the student to express the many subtleties of musical meaning. This entails technical refinement, an interpretation that is consistent and logical, as well as a sense of vision for any given work.  Music reveals to us as individuals, and as communities, untapped potentials for understanding, beauty, and grace.

Dr. Matthew Hill, pianist and Goshen College professor of music, teaches piano, chamber music, music history, and is chair of the music department.  He is an active recitalist, chamber musician, concerto performer, and master classes teacher. His interests in monasticism, theology, and the role of silence in music, engage his teaching, scholarship, and performing with a unique perspective and depth.  He was on the piano faculty at the Schlern International Music Festival in northern Italy and has also taught at the Wausau Conservatory (WI), at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and has also been a member of the piano faculty at the prestigious Interlochen Fine Arts Summer Camp.

Dr Hill was awarded a faculty renewal grant that entails  creation of a recital program to illuminate the connections that exist between music, color, image, and faith (‘hearing’ and ‘seeing’). The French Catholic composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) said about his own music that it was intended as a type of “liturgy for the concert hall.”  This resemblance to liturgy is due for several reasons: the use of descriptive titles and accompanying religious texts that reveal the religious intentionality of the music, and the unique relationship that exists between ‘hearing’ and ‘seeing’ in his music. Messiaen had a unique synaesthetic reaction to music in the internal “seeing” of colors, a type rainbow of colors, that was related to his experience of stained-glass windows as a church organist. Franz Liszt (1811-1886), wrote several important works that emphasize images of faith. The images are those of a fountain in Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este.  In two other pieces, the images are those from the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi speaking to the birds, and Saint Francis of Padua walking on the waves.   This program will be first performed at Benedictine University in Kansas in the fall of 2018 and again in March at the School of Music at Butler University in 2019.

For the 2016 Indiana Music Teacher’s Conference Matthew performed a world premiere of a Piano Trio (Goyescas XXI Homage to Enrique Granados) by Jorge Muñiz  alongside his colleagues Solomia Soroka (violin) and Jose Rocha (cello). Dr. Hill was selected to present at the 2014 MTNA National Convention on his studies with Claude Frank (“Brushes with Greatness”).  Other professional highlights include: a series of master classes and a recital performance at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, China; contribution of a chapter to Silence, Music, Silent Music (Ashgate 2007), publication of articles for Clavier, and an invited presention at  “Couleurs dans le vent: Celebrating the Music of Olivier Messiaen” held at the University of Kansas.  Matthew Hill has performed with with the UW-Madison Symphony, the Goshen College Orchestra, on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Live from the Elvehjem and at the White House in Washington D.C. as accompanist for the Wausau Conservatory Choraliers Children’s Choir.

The Blue Griffin recording label released his CD recording, Silent Colors, containing works by Liszt, Debussy, Messiaen, and several Gershwin songs arranged as virtuoso etudes by Earl Wild.  The American Record Guide commenting on this recording states: “Matthew Hill is a talented pianist who has definite ideas as to how this music should go. He has a respectable technique to accomplish his aims.”

He has a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Howard Karp and has also studied with the renowned Beethoven performer Claude Frank, as well as with Dr. Richard Angeletti, and Dr. Garik Pedersen.  His students have won various competitions – including a variety of concerto performances, and have also gone onto graduate study at the following universities and conservatories: Westminster Conservatory, University of Wisconsin-Madison. University of Oklahoma, University of Kansas, Bowling Green University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Southern Florida, and at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music.

Matthew began piano lessons at the very late age of 12 because of a strong desire to learn “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin. His music education increased rapidly when he learned of the music of Beethoven from reading Peanuts comic strips. His five much older sisters explained to the young boy that record albums of Beethoven Symphonies were owned by their parents, and Matthew then spent many happy hours listening to these as well as many other musical masterpieces. Another highlight of his youth was the discovery of the Hanon Piano Studies, and he gleefully played through all 60 exercises daily. He even expanded into Czerny, Pishna, and especially valued the School of Finger Independence by Isidore Phillipe. He credits his parents’ growth in patience and holiness as a direct result of his daily, and highly repetitive, technique regime.

Courses Currently Teaching

• Applied Piano
• Music History (2019/20)
• Chamber Music
• Keyboard Theory
• Musical Theatre: Style, Expression, and Culture
• George Gershwin: Fascinating Rhythm (2018/19)

“Hearing and Seeing in Liszt and Messiaen” Recital performances at Benedictine College (KS) and Butler University (Indianapolis), 2018/2019

Arts in London, Professor, 2017

Music Teachers National Association Presentation, Chicago 2014: Brushes with Greatness – Studying with Claude Frank

Schlern International Music Festival (Italy), 2013

Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, 2013/2014

Silent Colors: Blue Griffin Compact Disk Recording, 2011

 

Ashgate (UK) Publication, “Faith, Silence, and Darkness Entwined in Messiaen’s ‘Regard du silence,’” Chapter in Silence, Music, Silent Music, edited by Nicky Losseff, (University of York) and Jenny Doctor (University of York), 2007

Sichuan Conservatory of Music: Master Classes and Recital, Chengdu China, 2006

College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Invited Lecture, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Lecture: The Musical Narrative, Hermeneutics, and Context from Monteverdi to John CageMianyang, China, 2006

Coleurs dans le vent: A Celebration of the Music of Olivier Messiaen; Conference Presentation: Hearing and Seeing in Messiaen’s ‘Regard du Silence’, University of Kansas, 2002

 

“Hearing and Seeing in Liszt and Messiaen”: Benedictine College and Butler University, Guest Artist Recitals, 2018/2019 :“Hearing and Seeing in Liszt and Messiaen”

Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este by Franz Liszt  John4:14: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus  by Olivier Messiaen 

• Première communion de la Vierge  (The Virgin’s First Communion) (After the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary adores Jesus within her… my God, my Son, my Magnificat! — my love without the sound of words…)
• XVII. Regard du silence (Contemplating Silence) (Silence in the hand, inverted rainbow, each silence from the crib reveals sounds and colors that are the mysteries of Jesus Christ…)
• XIX. Je dors, mais mon coeur veille  (I Sleep but My Heart Keeps Vigil) (It is not the angel’s bow that smiles down on us — it is sleeping Jesus, who loves us on His Sunday and grants us oblivion…)

• Deux légendes      by Franz Liszt          
  • St. François d’Assise. La prédication aux oiseaux (Preaching to the Birds)
  • St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots (Walking on the Waves)

Goshen College Schere Piano Trio Recital, 2019

• Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”), Antonin Dvorak
• Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49, Felix Mendelssohn

Goshen College Collaborative Recital with violinist Solomia Soroka, 2018

• Sonata in D Major, Op. 8, Rossetter G. Cole
• Selected Virtuoso Etudes on Songs by Gershwin arr. by Earl Wild
• Suite for Violin and Piano, William Grant Still
• Selections from Porgy and Bess for Violin and Piano by Jascha Heifetz

Performance of Rhapsody in Blue with GC Orchestra, 2018

Western Michigan University, Guest Artist Recital, 2017

• English Suite No. 5 in E Minor, BWV 810, JC Bach
• Première communion de la Vierge, Messiaen
• Légende No. 2 : St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots, Liszt
• Etudes: Op. 10 No. 2 and Op. 10 No. 12, Chopin
• Rhapsody in Blue for Solo Piano, Gershwin

Goshen College Solo Recital, 2016

• Three Etudes, Op. 10 Nos. 2 and 12, Op. 25 No. 6 Chopin
• Sonata in C, Op. 2 No. 3  Beethoven
• Rhapsody in Blue (Solo Piano Version) Gershwin

Goshen College Collaborative Performances with cellist Jose Rocha, 2015/16 and 2016/17

Program I

• Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 for Cello and Piano Rachmaninoff
• Trio in D Minor, Op. 32 Arensky

Program II

• Impromptu in F Minor Op. 142 No. 4 Schubert
• Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor
• Sonata in C Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 6 Barber
• Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 Brahms

IMTA Conference World Premiere: Piano Trio: Goyescas XXI Homage to Enrique Granados) by Jorge Muñiz, 2016

Performance of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” Variations with Hope College Orchestra, Spring 2016

Goshen College Collaborative Performance with Solomia Soroka, Spring 2015

• Sonata for Violin/Piano in G Major   Grieg
• Polonaise in A-flat, Op. 53   Chopin
• Sonata for Violin/Piano   Janáček
• Suite for Violin/Piano      William Grant-Still

     Goshen College Faculty Solo Recital, Fall 2014

•  Piano Sonata  in G, D894  Schubert
•   Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10  Liszt
•    Piano Fantasy  Copland

Recital Performance, Spring 2014 at Interlochen Arts Academy

• Première communion de la Vierge, Messiaen
• Deux légendes  Liszt
• Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13, Schumann

Recital Performance, Fall 2013 at Goshen College

• “Eroica” Variations, Op. 35,  Beethoven
• Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11, A minor, Liszt
• Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13, Schumann

Performance on Faculty Recital at Schlern International Music Festival, Italy, 2013

Recital Performance,  Fall 2012 at Indiana Wesleyan University

• Selections from Images I: Reflets dans l’eau  and Mouvement  Debussy
• Selections from Vingt Regards: Première communion de la Vierge and Regard du silence Messiaen
• Sonata No. 5, Op. 53  Scriabin
• Deux légendes  Liszt
• Gershwin Virtuoso Etudes: Embraceable You and I Got Rhythm

Performance and Master Class, Fall 2012 at Ball State University

Program: Goshen College Faculty Solo Recital: Release for CD, Silent Colors (Blue Griffin), 2012

• Images I  Debussy
• Je dors, mais mon coeur veille  Messiaen
• Sonata No. 5, Op. 53  Scriabin
• Deux légendes  Liszt

Performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K.467 with Goshen College Orchestra, 2010

Program: Goshen College Piano Workshop Solo Recital, 2010

• English Suite No. 4 in F J. S. Bach
• Sonata in E-Flat Hob Haydn
• Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este  Liszt
• Three Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin Songs  arr. Earl Wild

Program: Goshen College Faculty Solo Recital, 2009

•  Selected Impromptus  Schubert
•  Selections from the Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jesus  Messiaen
•  Handel Variations and Fugue, Op. 24 Brahms

Program: Goshen College Collaborative Performance with Dr. Solomia Soroka, 2009

• Sonata for Violin/Piano in C Minor  Grieg
• Two Pieces from Op. 17  Josek Suk
• Sonata for Violin/Piano in F Minor  Prokofiev
• Second Ukraniam Rhapsody  Mykola Lysenko

Program: Goshen College Collaborative Performance with Dr. Solomia Soroka, 2008

• Ballade in G Minor Chopin
• Sonata in F for Violin/Piano Mendelssohn
•  Sonata for Violin/Piano  Elgar
•  Second Rhapsody for Violin/Piano Bartok

Program: Goshen College Chamber Music Recital, 2007

• Viola Sonata in E-Flat  Brahms
• Quintet in F Minor  Brahms

Solo Recital at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Chengdu China, October 2006

•  Sonata K. 281 Mozart
•  Mephisto Waltz No. 1 Liszt
•  Piano Sonata Tippett
•  Three Gershwin Virtuoso Etudes Arranged by Earl Wild

Performance of Brahms Piano Quartet in G Minor at Ludington (MI) Music Festival, 2005

Performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto with Goshen College Orchestra, 2005

Program: Goshen College Piano Workshop Solo Recital, 2004

• Siciliano aus 2. Flötensonate   J.S. Bach/Kempff
• Sonata Op. 33 No. 1 in A Major Clementi
• Je dors, mais mon Coeur veille  Messiaen
• Sonata in B Minor Liszt

Program: Goshen College Faculty Solo Recital, 2002

• English Suite in E Minor  J.S. Bach
•  Images I  Debussy
• Introduction and Rondo Op. 16  Chopin
• Scherzo Op. 39  Chopin

Central Wisconsin Symphony, 2001

Piano Soloist in “Carnival of the Animals”  Saint Seans

Collaborative Recital, Soprano Sandy Hill and Tenor Terry Chasteen,  Wisconsin Public Radio, “Live from the Elvehjem Museum” Madison, 2000

Songs by: Bernstein, Strauss, Rorem, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Ernesto de Curtis, Eduardo di Capua

 

• Symphony of the Lakes Concerto Auditions, Warsaw IN, 2018, 2019
• MTNA Divisional Young Artist Competition, Goshen College, 2016
• Illinois MTNA Collegiate Piano, MTNA Senior Piano, ISMTA Senior Piano, held at Northeastern Illinois University, 2013
• Fort Wayne Symphony Young Artist Auditions, 2012
• Young Artist Competition sponsored by the Tuesday Musical Club, San Antonio, TX, 2011
• Fort Wayne area Hosier Piano Auditions at IU-PFW, 2009
• Legacy Foundation for the Arts (Olathe, KS), 2008, 2009
• Indiana Music Teachers State Hoosier Auditions, 2007
• Indiana Music Teachers Association Senior/Collegiate Artist Auditions, 2006
• Indiana Music Teachers State Hoosier Auditions, 2005
• Artist of the Month, Fischoff Chamber Music Association, 2001-2010
• South Bend Chopin Piano Competition, 2002, 2007
• Wisconsin Music Teachers State Badger Auditions, 2000
• Wisconsin District Solo Ensemble, 1999

In the Spring of 2019 I received a grant to present recitals called :”Hearing and Seeing in Liszt and Messiaen.”  In the past academic year this program was presented at Benedictine College (KS) and at the School of Music at Butler University (Indianapolis). The following are the program notes that explain this project and the music.

Olivier Messiaen’s (1908-1992) monumental Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus is a musical-mystical compendium of twenty piano pieces using descriptive titles, verbal prefaces, and lengthy program notes to evoke in the mind of the listener the mysteries of religious faith. It is suggestive that Messiaen uses the French verb regard, meaning, “to look”, for a set of musical pieces.  Robert Sherlaw Johnson explains: “the sense of the word regard in this work involves contemplation as well as the more literal meaning ‘gaze’. It is essentially a contemplation of the mysteries involved in the subject of each piece as well as of the child Jesus.” (Messiaen Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975, 71.)  Norman Bryson reveals that “the etymology of the word regard points to far more than the rudimentary act of looking” but also to “a persevering drive which looks outward with mistrust and actively seeks to confine what is always on the point of escaping or slipping out of bounds”. (Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983, 93.)  Following from this we can understand Messiaen’s use of the verb regard to imply a type of synesthetic correspondence that expresses a musical vision, an act of hearing and seeing that hopes to encounter the ineffable mysteries of faith.

Messiaen also  said his music was intended as a type of “liturgy for the concert hall.”  This resemblance to liturgy is due for several reasons: the use of descriptive titles and accompanying religious texts that reveal the religious intentionality of the music, and the unique relationship that exists between ‘hearing’ and ‘seeing’ in his music.  This understanding is very similar to the ideas expressed in the article “Seeing, Hearing, and Reading Within the Church” (Explorations in Theology, vol.2) by Hans urs von Balthasar.   In Catholic liturgy the believer “hears” the Word and “sees” the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  This sacramental understanding is also directly related to the hypostatic union of natures (Divine and human, eternal and material) in the person of Christ.

Messiaen himself had a unique synaesthetic reaction to music in the internal “seeing” of colors, a type rainbow of colors that was directly related to his experience of stained-glass windows as a church organist.  Messiaen explains this relationship of color to music:

If we are capable of connecting sound to color and color to sound, and if one is capable of being dazzled by this connection one may touch the divine.  Therefore all sacred art, be it musical painting or colored music, ought to be from the start a sort of rainbow of sounds and of colors. (Almut Rossler, Contributions to the Spiritual World of Oliver Messiaen, trans. Barabara Dagg and Nancy Poland. Duisburg: Gilles and Francke, 1986. 65)

The great pianist and composer, Franz Liszt (1811-1886), wrote several important works for the piano that emphasize elements of faith.  Messiaen emphasized the simultaneous experience of color with music, while Liszt’s primary means of evoking faith was through the suggestion of imagery.  The images that the program I will be performing are those of a fountain in Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este. The score from the Gospel of St. John: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”  In two other pieces, the images are those from the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi speaking to the birds, and Saint Francis of Padua walking on the waves. These pieces in particular, with their emphasis on images, also fall into the general category of religious devotion.  Devotionals, such as the Rosary, are usually centered around several simultaneous acts of the senses: “hearing” the prayers or words of scripture, and the “seeing” of particular images associated with specific mysteries of faith, or with miraculous occurrences in the lives of saints.